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A LITERARY IMPOSTURE. 

Interesting Correspondence. 

On Thursday, the 12th of March last, after 
the close of the obsequies in honor of Dr. 
Kane, a number of his comrades dined to- 
gether at Parkinson's. On that occasion the 
conversation turned upon the different pub- 
lished accounts of the Arctic expedition. 
Among these was one purporting to have 
been written by Auguste Sontag, which the 
party determined to denounce as being, in 
their opinion, a spurious work. This they 
did in the following 

PROTEST. 

We, the undersigned members of the Arctic Ex- 
pedition, under the command of the late Dr. Elisha 
K. Kane, having noticed a book purporting to be 
written by one of our comrades, Auguste Sontag, 
astronomer to the Expedition, &o., take this op- 
portunity to say that we believe it never to have 
been published with his consent or 1 nowledge, he 
being at this time, and for some time before the 
book went to press, in Mexico. We are induced to 
make this public exposure because we believe the 
book injures our comrade to whom its authorship is 
attributed, and it is no record of our labors. 

We therefore caution the public against its pur- 
chase, and respectfully request all editors favor- 
able to the late expedition to copy this notice. 



Henry Brooks, 
Amos Bonsall, 
H. Goodfellow, 



William Morton, 
J. J. Hayes, 
Geo. Stephenson. 



The proceedings of the meeting were re- 
ported in the Philadelphia Evening Journal, 
and having given offence to the publisher of 
Sontag's reputed book, he requested us to do 
him the justice to print the following card,to 
which we gave place in our columns the fol- 
lowing day : — 

To the Editor of the Phila. Evening J ourtial. 

In your paper of Saturday, I noticed in an account 
of the proceedings at an entertainment given by 
Mr. G. W. Childs, of the firm of Childs and Peter- 
son, to some of the members of the Grinnell Ex- 
ploring Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, 
a protest signed by some of them, in relation to the 
publishing of Sonntag's Narrative of the Grinnell 
Expedition, which does much injustice to me as the 
publisher. If you will have the kindness to give 
the enclosed affidavit a place in your paper, you 
will oblige Yours, CnARiiES C. Rhodes. 

Philadelphia, March 14, 1857. 

Rosa Sonntag, being duly sworn, doth depose 
and say, that Mr. Charles C. Rhodes bought the 
narrative written by her husband, giving an ac- 



count of his voyage to the Arctic regions, under 
the command of Dr. E. K. Kane, and that she be- 
! lieyes he bought it for the purpose of publishing it. 
, Rosa Sonntag. 

t Sworn and subscribed before me this 14th day of 
, March, Anno Domini 1857. Geo. ttKYER, 

i Alderman Thirteenth Ward, 

i Between these conflicting statements, the 
community, of course, found it difficult to de- 
cide, and we know that an effort was made at 
the time to misrepresent the relations of 
Messrs. Childs & Peterson, the publishers of 
Dr. Kane's narrative, to the controversy, and 
thereby to injure that firm in public estima- 
tion. Time, however, generally sets such 
matters right, and we now lay before our read- 
ers the following letters from Mr. Sontag and 
Mr. Goodfellow, the originals, and post-marked 
envelopes of which, we have seen. 

The first letter we shall give, is from Henry 
Goodfellow, to G. W. Childs, Esq.:— 

Philadelphia, March 16, 1857. 

My Dear Sir : — A card, signed by Charles C. 
Rhodes, the publisher of the alleged work of Mr. 
Sonntag, has been brought to my attention. 

I desire to state to you how indignant I feel, and 
I believe all the rest of our party will feel, upon 
reading it, at this insolent perversion of an act of 
kind hospitality and attention to the members of 
our party, who, by your goodness, upon their re- 
turn from the funeral of Dr. Kane, after an expo- 
sure all day without refreshment, were enabled to 
' partake of the so necessary refreshment, while we 
were re-united once more around your table. 

After dinner, the conversation turning upon our 
! absent messmate, I believe it was myself who first 
alluded to the wretched work attributed to my ab- 
Isent comrade, Mr. Sonntag. One of our party (Dr. 
; Hayes) proposed that we should notice the work, 
in order to save Mr. Sonntag harmless; but I sug- 
gested that it was too apparent a fabrication to 
iriseto the dignity of contradiction. It was an- 
swered that thousands of the book had been sold, 
! producing in the minds of inconsiderate and badly 
informed persons an impression disparaging of the 
'expedition. The card, drawn up, has since re- 
ceived the signature of every member of our party 
who has seen it. 

You disclaimed all interest in the matter, and 
the act was entirely that of the signers, who alone 
are responsible for it. 

What was my amazement, a day or two after- 
wards, to read the card, and the affidavit of Mrs. 
Sonntag appended to it, setting forth that C. C. 
Rhodes had purchased "the narrative written by 
her husband giving an account of his voyage," 
(fee, without stating of whom the purchase was 
made, or what narrative it was, showing, you per- 
ceive, no identity of the article purchased with 
Che article published. 

And for the best of reasons^ as the narrative 
purchased, according to Rhodes' own confes- 
sion to both you, sir, and myself, was intend^ 



ed for a mere magazine article for Harper, of 
some ten to fifteen pages, and its only similarity 
was in the main facts of the history of the expedi- 
tion, which could have been obtained from the 
public papers of the date of our arriyal. 

The jumble of extracts from Arctic books, and 
the pictures, I have grounds for believing, amount- 
ing almost to certainty, no more emanated from - 
Mr. Sonntag than they resemble the facts. 

But C. C. Rhodes goes further, and promises to 
produce Mr. Sonntag's affidavit ; the affidavit of 
a man who will not be able to recognize a single 
sentence in the book, and will be as mucti horror 
struck, to a moral certainty, as I would be if the 
title page bore my own name. The force of folly 
could no further go. 

Very respectfully and truly yours, 

Hknky Goodfellow. 

G-. W. Childs, Esq., Arch street. 

The next letter is one from Mr. Sonntag, to 

Gr. W. Childs, aa follows :— 

Hotel Iturbide, ) 
Mexico, April 22, 1857. J 

Dear Sir : — A few days ago I received a letter 
from Philadelphia, informing me that a narrative 
of the last Arctic expedition was published under 
my name, and, almost at the same time, a friend, 
who returned from the United States, brought me 
the book- itself. I am very much mortified to see 
my name at the head of such a wretched concern, 
especially as I never wrote anything about the ex- 
Dedition which could have given cause to a book 
like this. 

To make the thing as absurd as possible, one of 
the copies which I saw is dedicated to Dr. Jayne, 
a man whose name I never heard before, and whose 
medicines I certainly never used; the other to Com- 
modore Stockton, a gentleman whom I highly re- 
spect. It pains me very much to think he might 
possibly believe me to be the author who is imper- 
cinent enough to dedicate such a wretched publi- 
cation to him. 

I did not write the book., it is a shameful impo- 
sition, and I am determined to prosecute the ras- 
cally impostor who published it under my name. 

I send to-day a note to the New York Herald, 
protesting against the authorship of this book, and 
you would oblige me very much if you could inr 
duce some of the Philadelphia and Washington 
papers to publish the same protest. 

I want to bring a lawsuit against the publisher, 
and would receive it as a particular favor if you 
will inform me about the steps which I have to take 
in this matter. I am sorry that I cannot well leave 
here at present to come to Philadelphia, but I hope 
there are some means to punish a cowardly im- 
postor who takes advantage of my absence to abuse 
my name for the sake of filling his pocket. 

Waiting anxiously for a few lines from you, 
I remain, truly yours, 

Augusts Sonntag. 

"We ought to add that Mr. Childa has never 
corresponded with Mr. Sonntag on any sub- 
ject whatever, and that he was surprised when 
he received from him the above letter. 



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C5 
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PROFESSOR SpNNTAG'S 

THEILLING NAERATIVE 

OF THE 

GRIMELL EXPLORIIG EXPEDITIOM 

IN THE YEARS 

1853, 1854, AND 1855, 

IN SEAECH OF SIR JOHN FEANKLIN, 

UNDER THE COMMAND OP 

DR. E. K. KANE, U.S.N. 

OONTAINING 

THE HISTOEY OP ALL PREYIOUS EXPLORATIONS OE THE ARCTIC OCEAN, FROM THE 
YEAR 1618 DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME; 

SHOWING HOW FAR THEY ADVANCED NORTHWARD, WHAT DISCOVERIES THEY MADE, 

AND THKIR SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS. THE PRESENT WHEREABOUTS OP SIR JOHN 

BRANKLIN AND HIS PARTY, IF THEY ARE STILL ALIVE. A STATEMENT OF THE 

ONLY PRACTICABLE METHOD BY WHICH THE NORTH POLE MAY BE REACHED; 

THE REASONS WHY ALL EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS HAVE HITHERTO. 

TAILED TO PENETRATE THE ICY BARRIERS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 

HIGHLY IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS, 

PROVING THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS APPARENT TIME AT THE NORTH POLE; SUF- 
FERINGS OF DR. KANE'S EXPLORING PARTY; HOW THEY WERE BURIED FOR TWO YEARS 
IN THE ICE, ENDURING A DEGREE OF COLD NEVER EXPERIENCED BY ANY HUMAN 
BEING BEFORE; THEIR MIRACULOUS ESCAPES AND UNPRECEDENTED HARD- 
SHIPS; THEIR ABANDONMENT OP THE SHIP; AND PERILOUS 
JOURNEY OF POUR HUNDRED MILES OVER THE ICE. 

WITH NEARLY ONE HUNDRED SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS. 

BT 

PHOFESSOR AUGUST SONNTAG, 

ASTRONOMER TO "HE EXPEDITION, FORMERLY OF THE ROYAiA\oBSEBVATORY AT VIENNA, AND 
LATiJ OF THE U. S. NATIONAL OBSERVATORY, WASHINGTON CITY, D. C. 



d o 



PHILADELPHIA, PENN.: 
JAS. T. LLOYD & 
CINCINNATI, OHIO: 
JAS. T. LLOYD & CO. 




^ *'^ 



\< 



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^ 

^•^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

MRS. ELLA LLOYD, 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and 
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED BT GEORGE CHARLES. 




PROFESSOR SONNTAG. 



DEDICATION 



TO COMMODORE ROBERT F. STOCKTON, U. S. N. 

Dear Sir : — Aware of the deep interest you take in every 
enterprise which is calculated to exalt the reputation of the 
Naval Service of your country — an object to which your per- 
sonal efforts have been long and successfully directed — I 
dedicate this Volume to you, confident that you will not dis- 
approve of the association of your name with the narrative 
of an undertaking which was worthy of the chivalric and 
heroic character of the American Navy ; and which was de- 
signed to serve the cause of science and humanity. While I 
avail myself of that additional claim to public consideration 
which this Narrative will acquire from the use of your name, 
I rejoice in the opportunity thus afforded me, to offer this 
tribute (however unnecessary and valueless it may be) to 
your private character and public services. When I express 
the hope that these services may meet with due appreciation 
from the country of your birth and my adoption, I feel that 
all has been said which can declare the good wishes of your 
obliged friend and obedient servant, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



If the publication of such a book as this required any ex- 
planation or apology, it would be sufficient to say that every 
item of information relating to Arctic discovery is eagerly de- 
sired by the public at this time, and it would be almost crimi- 
nal for any man who possesses such information to withhold 
it from the world. The undersigned having purchased Pro- 
fessor Sonntag's Narrative of the Grinnel Expedition, some 
months since, have used their best judgment and abilities in pre- 
paring this thrilling narrative for the press, to make it as ac- 
ceptable to the reading public as possible. The artistic embel- 
lishments and electrotyping are of the first order ; and we feel 
assured that many highly interesting facts recorded in this 
work have never appeared in print before. We are equally 
confident that no man who ever visited the Polar climes could 
be better qualified by nature and education to give an accurate 
and satisfactory account of Arctic affiiirs, than the gifted and 
scientific gentleman whose narrative we now offer to the 
public. All preceding journals of Arctic travelers have been 
more or less vague and incomplete, being for the most part 
diaries of personal adventure rather than graphic descriptions 
of the localities, incidents, and peculiarities of those myste- 



8 PREFACE. 

rious regions which surround the Pole, and their almost equally 
remarkable inhabitants. In this work, as we confidently 
believe, the reading public will have the most concise and 
complete description of the manners and habits of the Esqui- 
maux tribes that has ever issued from the press. 

Professor Sonntag is now engaged with a party of scientific 
gentlemen in making explorations in Central America and 
in Mexico; accounts of their observations in those countries, 
together with drawings, maps, &c., all of the highest import- 
ance to geographical and geological science, will appear in book 
form as soon as the work can be made ready. 

Respecting the price of this Volume, we have concluded to 
pu-t it at such a low figure, as will enable all classes to read it. 
The first edition has been ordered in advance of its publication, 
and we confidently believe that it is destined to have an un- 
'precedented circulation. 

JAS. T. LLOYD & CO. 

Philadelphia, Jan. \st, 185 T. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introductory Observations on Voyages of Discovery and Exploration in Gene- 
ral. — The Unfortunate Expedition of Sir John Franklin. — Ineffectual At- 
tempts to Discover hia Whereabouts and afford him Relief 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Captain Kane's Expedition starts from New York — Affecting Scenes at its 
Departure' — Arrival at St. John's — The Tribulations of the Adventurers 
begin Early. — The Expedition reaches Greenland. — Modes of Living of 
the Esquimaux. — Visit to the Danish Settlement. — Frequent and Terrific 
Appearance of Icebergs. — How they are Formed, etc 31 

CHAPTER III. 

Further Observations on the Difficulties of Arctic Navigation. — " Floes" and 

p " Hummocks" of Ice described. — Ships Built expressly for Navigating the 

Polar Seas. — Preparations for Passing the Winter among the Ice. — We 

begin to Experience all the Horrors of the Climate. — Great Mortality among 

the Dogs 39 

CHAPTER IV. 
Our Situation becomes more and more Unpleasant. — The Arctic Winter sets in. 
— Intense Cold, and its Surprising Effects. — Polar Scenery. — Dreadful Suf- 
ferings of our Excursion Parties. — We are visited by the Savage Esqui- 
maux. — Their Personal Appearance, Dress, Manners, and Character.. 49 

CHAPTER V. 

Some Account of the Esquimaux Dogs. — Their Singular Habits and Great 
Utility. — Further Account of the Manners, Customs, and Superstitions of the 
Savage Esquimaux. — We obtain another Dog-Team, and send out two new 
Traveling Parties, one commanded by Dr. Kane in person 61 

CHAPTER VII. 
. Numbers of Walruses or Sea-Horses are Discoverea.— Description of the Ap- 
pearance, Habits, and Peculiarities of these Animals. — Summer Scenery in 
the Arctic Regions. — Vegetation. — Animal Life. — Arctic Birds, Bears, 

Foxes and Rabbits 81 

9 



10 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Terrific Water Spout. — A Thrilling Scene. — Large Fire Ball Precipitated into 
the Sea. — Seals, and their Mode of Hiding. — Wearisome Journey across the 
Ice. — How the Esquimaux hunt Seals. — Water Torrents. — We prepare to - 
Spend another Winter in our Ship, without Fires at Night. — Great Suffer- 
ing. — Failure of Dr. Kane's Party to reach Beechy Island 91 

CHAPTER IX. 

Troubles and Disappointments. — Another Winter sets in. — Scarcity of Fuel. — 
Two Bears visit our Ship. — A Battle. — Severe Suffering and Sickness. — 
Esquimaux Architecture, &c. — Their Sleeping Apparatus 97 

CHAPTER X. 

Arctic Sportsmanship. — Frequent Visits of the Esquimaux. — Life in the Es- 
quimaux Huts. — Modes of Cooking, Cooking Utensils, etc. — Occupations 
of Men, Women, and Children. — Laziness and Gluttony of the Esquimaux. 
— Their Hunting Excursions : Difficulties and Dangers thereof. — Interesting 
Anecdote of two young Esquimaux Hunters 107 

CHAPTER XI. 

Esquimaux Hunting. — Bear Baiting Extraordinary. — Walrus Catching. — Sin- 
gular Customs. — Esquimaux Generosity and Benevolence. — Fourierism in 
Greenland. — Our Situation becomes Desperate. — Abandonment of the Ship 
and the Main, Object of the Expedition 116 

CHAPTER XIL 

The Reasons why all Arctic Expeditions have been Failures. — Captain Parry's 
Explorations the most Successful. — Suggestions for a New Plan of Arctic 
Exploration. — The Possibility of Reaching the North Pole. — How that Ob- 
ject may ''be effected 122 

CHAPTER XIII. 

An attempt to Answer the Question "Of what use are Arctic Explorations?" 
— " Will they Pay ?" — Hints for Enterprising Capitalixsts and Yankee Spe- 
culators. — Advantages of Polar Researches to the cause of Science, an object 
worthy of the Noblest Ambition. — Observations to be made at the Pole. . . . 128 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Devotions on Shipboard. — ^We bid a Final Adieu to the " Advance." — The 
Celebrated Boat Journey commenced. — Appalling Dangers of this Enter- 
prise. — Terrible Sufferings. — Narrow Escape from Drowning. — Distressing 
Accident. — Death and Funeral of the Carpenter. — A Grave unexpectedly 
Provided 137 

CHAPTER XV. 

Arrival at Open Water. — Embarkation. — Adventures at Sea. — Arrival at Hak- 
luyt's Island. — Great Sportsmanship. — Dreary Aspect of the Coast. — The 
Transportation of Rocks by Icebergs.— Scarcity of Provisions. — Large Sup- 
plies of Duck Eggs. — Want of Fuel to Cook them 147 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER XVI. 

"Wo arrive at a Spot well Populated by Feathered Bipeds. — Great Slaughter of 
the Inhabitants. — We expect to Meet with Whalers, but are Disappointed. — 
Vexatious Deceptions practised on us by the Icebergs. — Arrival at Melville 
Island. — Difficulties of Navigation at that Point.— Three White Men are 
Discovered on an Island. — Arrival at a Danish Settlement. — The end of the 
famous Boat Journey 156 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Our Cool Reception at TJpernavik. — The Esquimaux Treat us Handsomely. — 
The Curious Religious Notions of these People. — Their Government. — Their 
Strange Duels.^ — Improvements in their Modes of Living 166 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Dresses and Decorations of Esquimaux Ladies. — An Ingenious Signal, or a 
Beau-Catching Contrivance. — Admirable Construction of the Esquimaux 
Boats. — Reindeer Hunting by Water. — We Proceed in a Danish Ship to 
Disco Island. — Our Hospitable Reception. — Arrival of Captain Hartstein'a 
Expedition in Search of Dr. Kane. — We Embark for the United States. — 
Arrival at New York. — Conclusion of the Narrative 175 



SOMTia'S NAERATIVE 



OP THE 



GRINNELL EXPEDITION 



IN SEARCH OF 



SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, 



ZIN" ie53-4-S. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS ON VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 
IN GENERAL. — THE UNFORTUNATE EXPEDITION OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
INEFFECTUAL ATTEMPTS TO DISCOVER HIS WHEREABOUTS AND TO AFFORD 
HIM RELIEF. 

The exploration of un- 
known regions has al- 
ways been a favorite ob- 
ject with men of a bold 
and adventurous spirit, — 
and if we trace the histo- 
ry of the world, back to 
the remotest periods, even 
to the age of fable and 
poetic exaggeration, we 
shall find many memora- 
ble examples of those dar- 
ing enterprises which 
aimed at the discovery of 
lands or seas the very ex- 
istence of which was ques- 
tioned by the generality 
of mankind. The re- 
nowned Argonautic expe- 
dition was probably an enterprise of this kind, though the real objects 
and events of that undertaking are hidden under the misty veil of 

13 




14 sonntag's naerative of the grinnell expedition. 



mytliblogical narration. The Phoenicians were the most remarkable 
nation of antiquity for the extent of their maritime researches, and the 
number of their colonial settlements. But the enterprise of all early 
voyagers had its limits, as coasting was the only kind of navigation in 
which they could venture without encountering risks which were too 
formidable for human courage to undertake. The invention of the 
mariner's compass was the commencement of a new era in nautical 
affairs, as it enabled navigators to dispense with the land-marks 
which had hitherto guided them through the trackless deep, and to 
venture boldly through seas and oceans which had hitherto been deemed 
impassable. The splendid achievements of Columbus, Vespucius, and 
Vasco de Gama, were among the earliest results of this grand improve- 
ment in the art of navigation, an improvement which was soon followed 
by many others in marine architecture, and in the rigging and equip- 
ment of ships, the construction of which must necessarily be modified 
to suit the new service for which they were now required. The ships 
of earlier times were mere coasters, not at all adapted to the navigation 
of extensive seas or vast oceans, which now presented themselves as 
practicable fields for human enterprise. 

After the discoveries in Oceanica, by Capt. Cook and others, the 
spirit of maritime adventure seemed, for a time, to come to a pause, or 
we may say, "for lack of argument." The opinion seemed to gain 
ground that very little more was left, in the way of exploration, for sea- 
faring people to accomplish. Navigators were tempted to sit down and 
weep, like Alexander the Great, because the earth could afford them 
no other islands or continents to explore. Some attention, indeed, was 
directed to the Arctic regions ; but the bounds of exploration in that 
quarter Avere believed to be well defined by an icy barrier, beyond 
which the enterprise of man could never penetrate. In the contemplation 
of this stupendous obstacle the most ardent enthusiasm became chilled 
and benumbed, and the proverbially reckless spirit of the sailor was 
appalled. There was a feeling of romantic and almost superstitious 
terror connected with the idea of sailing to a locality which appeared 
to be beyond the limits of the habitable globe; a locality the 
approaches to which were enclosed by portals of ice more repulsive 
than gates of adamantine rock ; and which, if once passed, might be 
closed again on the too-daring traveller, shutting him forever from ail 
intercourse with the cheerful world without, and confining him in the 
dreary dominions of perpetual winter, without any prospect of release. 
Imagination presented the frozen corpses of preceding adventurers lying 
"unknelled,uncofBned, and unknown," the victims of their own reckless 



■5^, >:Su», iHn T 




ijJ )'>ki/ _ ilJ^'l 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 17 

hardihood in having dared to venture beyond those limits where nature 
herself assumed an aspect of terrible menace, seeming to declare — 
"thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." To disregard this prohibition 
seemed to be almost an act of impiety, and many persons of sober 
judgment and scientific attainments thought that the experiment of 
Arctic exploration had been sufficiently tried, am that further attempts 
of the kind were utterly hopeless. 

As early as the beginning of the sixteenth century efibrts had been 
made by navigators, under the auspices of different European powers, 
to open a passage to China and the East Indies, by circumnavigating 
the northern coast of America. In the year 1627, the idea of a 
passage to the East Indies by approaching the North Pole, was suggested 
by a Bristol merchant to Henry VIII ; but it appears that no voyage 
was undertaken for the purpose of navigating the circum-polar seas 
until the commencement of the following century. In 1607, an 
expedition, having this object in view, was fitted out at the expense of 
certain London merchants. To this attempt several others succeeded, 
at different periods ; but although they were well projected, and were 
carried out with energy, and as much skill and science as the times 
could command, in every instance they proved total failures with 
regard to the main object of the enterprise. 

At length, after the lapse of more than a century and a half, this 
interesting object obtained the royal patronage of Great Britain ; and in 
1773, an expedition under the command of Captain Phipps was planned 
and equipped by the British Government. Though Captain Phipps found 
it impossible to penetrate that vast rampart of ice, which extended for 
more than twenty degrees between the latitudes of 60° and 81°, "the 
belief of most scientific men of the age in the possibility of proceeding 
further, under more favorable circumstances, remained unshaken. In 
1775-76, the Hon. D. Barrington, an English lord, published a book 
in which he discussed the possibility of approaching the North Pole, and 
notwithstanding many important and significant facts were contained in 
his valuable work, he was ridiculed by the most of his countrymen as 
an idle and visionary projector. 

In 1806, a certain Captain Symmes, of Cincinnati, Ohio, produced 2k ■ 
treatise on the Arctic regions, in which he suggested that the earth 
was probably hollow, and that a passage might be found somewhere 
beyond the Arctic circle, which would afford the means of entrance to 
the cavity within. He offered to verify his theory by actual experi- 
ment, to be made by himself, and expressed his willingness to stake his 
life and fortune on the result. This captain, in all other matters 



18 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

conducted himself like a man of soTincL judgment, and his theory, eingular 
and startling as it was, obtained considerable credit for a time, both 
in Europe and America. Even at this day, " Symmes' Hole" is not 
quite forgotten, though the captain's theory, is believed by scientific 
men and the public in general to be quite as hollow as the earth itself, 
according to his representations. The Dutch made three several 
voyages, in 1594-5-6, for the discovery of a north-east passage, but 
were equally unsuccessful as the English. 

All these efforts were made abortive by the icy obstructions, which 
are always encountered in those narrow seas which lie between and 
contiguous to Baffin's Bay and Behring's Straits. There is every 
reason to believe that this obstacle will always exist, causing the navi- 
gation of these waters to be attended with great peril and uncertainty, 
even in the most favorable seasons. This consideration goes far to 
preclude all hope that any object of much practical utility to the world 
can be accomplished by the navigation of these seas, even though the 
regions beyond could offer the strongest inducements to commercial 
enterprise. The passage recently discovered by the gallant exertions 
of Messrs. McClure and Inglefield, is not at all exempt from these 
difficulties, and the chief results of their discovery, made with so much 
labor and peril, are the solution of a geographical problem and a more 
precise knowledge of the localities. 

During a period of forty years, the most strenuous and expensive 
■exertions were made for the attainment of the grand object specified 
■above. The English were the principal aspirants for the glory of that 
•discovery, and the voyages of those celebrated British navigators, Ross, 
Perry and Franklin, contributed in a high degree to elucidate the 
geographical position of the northern American coast, and many addi- 
tions were made by the exertions of these brave seamen to the stores 
of physical science. 

So much has been said and written on the subject of a north-west 
passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and so many erroneous notions 
have been afloat concerning it, that I will account for the recent revival 
'of the attempts to discover it. 

Among the changes and vicissitudes to which the physical constitu- 
tion of our globe is perpetually subject, one of the most extraordinary, 
and from which the most interesting and important results may be 
anticipated, appears to have taken place in the course of the last ten or 
fifteen years, and is still in progressive operation. The convulsion of an 
earthquake and the eruption of a volcano force themselves into notice 
by the dismay and devastation with which, in a greater or less degree. 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 19 

they are almost always attended ; but the event to which I allude has 
been so quietly accomplished, that it might have remained unknown, 
but for the extraordinary change which a few intelligent navigators 
remarked in the Arctic ice, and the reports of the unusual quantities of 
this ice observed in the Atlantic ; this event to which I allude, was 
the disappearance of the whole or greater parffif the vast barriers of 
ice, which for a long period of time, perhaps, was supposed to have 
maintained its firm, rooted position on the eastern coast of old 
Greenland ; and its re-appearance in a more southerly latitude, where 
it was met with, as was attested by various persons worthy of credit, 
in the years 1815-16-17, by ships coming from the East Indies and 
America, by others going to Halifax and Newfoundland, and in dif- 
ferent parts of the Atlantic, as far down as the fortieth parallel of 
latitude. Some of these detached masses were of an unusual magnitude 
and extent, amounting in some instances to whole islands of ice, of such 
vast dimensions that ships were impeded by them for many days, in 
their voyages ; others were detached icebergs, from a hundred to a 
hundred and thirty feet above the surface of the water, and several 
miles in circumference. The Halifax Packet reported in 1845, that she 
had passed a mountain of ice nearly two hundred feet high, and at least 
two miles in circumference ; a ship belonging to the old Greenland 
INIissions was eleven days beset on the coast of Labrador in floes of 
ice n!iixed with icebergs, many of which had huge rocks upon them, 
gravel, soil, and pieces of wood. In short, every account from various 
parts of North America agreed in stating, that larger and more 
numerous fields and bergs of ice had been seen at greater distances 
from their usual places in the years above mentioned, than had at any 
time before been witnessed by the oldest navigators. The fact, therefore, 
might be considered as too well authenticated to admit of a doubt ; it 
was at once concluded from whence the greater part of these immense 
quantities of ice were derived. In a letter from Mr. Scoresby, an 
intelligent navigator of the Greenland seas, to Sir Joseph Banks, he 
says: "I observed on my last voyage (1817) about two thousand 
square leagues (18,000 square miles) of the surface of the Greenland 
seas, included between the parallels of 74° and 80°, perfectly void of 
ice, all of which had disappeared within the last two years." And he 
farther states, " that, although on former voyages he had very rarely 
been able to penetrate the ice between the latitudes of 76° and 80°, so 
far to the west as the meridian of Greenwich, on his last voyage he twice 
reached the longitude of 10° west; that on the parallel of 74° he 
approached the coast of old Greenland ; that there was little ice near 



20 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

the land," and he added, that " there could he no douht that he might 
have reached the shore, had he hut a justifiahle motive for navigating 
an unknown sea at so late a season of the year." 

This account was fully confirmed hy intelligence received at 
Copenhagen, from Iceland, in the year 1816, that the ice had hroken 
loose from the oppos™ coast of Greenland, and floated away to the 
southward after surrounding the shores of Iceland, and filling all the 
bays and creeks of that island ; and that this afiiicting visitation was 
repeated in 1817; circumstances hitherto unknown to the oldest 
inhabitant. About the same time the whale ships that frequented the 
fishery in Davis' Straits, and the Hudson Bay traders, experienced an 
unusual number of icebergs, and large floes of ice drifting to the 
southward,. down the straits, and along the coasts of Labrador, and of 
Newfoundland. Yet as to a certain extent those masses of ice 
were of frequent occurrence in these quarters,,, and occasionally met 
with in the Atlantic ; it was those from the eastward that attracted 
particular notice. Whatever the cause may have been for the disruption 
of this immense barrier of ice from the eastern coast of Greenland, 
whether by its own weight, after centuries of accumulation, or from the 
partial disruption of the coast itself, the fact is unquestionable that the 
notoriety of it given in the several journals of Europe, and more 
especially in those of England, corroborated by various private 
communications, was among the circumstances which, combined with 
others, gave rise to the revival of those voyages of discovery for 
attempting a passage round the northern coast of America to the Pacific 
Ocean, and also to another attempt to reach the North Pole by proceeding 
between the east coast of Greenland, now freed from ice, and the west 
coast of Spitzbergen, generally not much hampered with ice. It may 
be observed that none of the old English navigators were able to 
penetrate any part of the Polar Sea, all their discoveries were confined 
to the straits, and inlets, and islands, on the eastern coast of America, 
and the large straits of Davis and Baffin, on the western coast of 
Greenland. Had Baffin entered Lancaster Sound from his own strait, 
he would at once have discovered the sea which communicates with the 
Pacific, and then there is no saying what this able old navigator and his 
contemporaries might not have effected ; indeed, at the commencement of 
Parry's, Ross's, Franklin's, and Inglefield's voyages, from 1818 down to 
the voyage of Captain Back, in 1835, nothing was known of any entrance 
into the Polar Sea from the other side of America. All that was known 
on the first attempt, which hardly deserves the name, was that the Polar 
Sea did exist, that the ships of Captain Cook had looked m at it through 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 21 

Behring's Straits, and that Fearne and Mackenzie, two North American 
travellers, had arrived at the northern shore of North America, at 
different points and at different times, and reported, somewhat doubtfully, 
that they had viewed the sea. From these circumstances, and more partic- 
ularly from undoubted authorities it was quite clear that a current was 
constantly found setting down Davis' Strait, ami the Strait of Hudson's 
Bay, and also along the shore of Spitzbergen, all to the southward ; no 
doubt, therefore, could remain that there must be a water communication 
between the seas of the Pacific and the northern Atlantic, that the 
water supplied through the strait of Behring (a well-established fact) 
into the Polar Sea, was discharged by some opening or other yet to be 
discovered, into the Atlantic. 

Many scientific men, however, turned into ridicule the idea of a 
polar basin, and others endeavored to show that if these currents 
existed, they must be very temporary or occasional, as they would 
otherwise drain this polar basin of its water. n 

It may be worth while, now, that the shores of this Polar Sea have 
been visited and surveyed, one part by English navigators, and the 
Asiatic part by the indefatigable Baron Wrangle, and others, to show 
to these would-be-wise gentlemen, what that sea really is, what are its 
inpourings, its outpourings, and its dimensions. In the first place, it is 
an immense basin of water, included by the shores of Asia, of Europe, 
and of America ; of Asia from Nova Zembla, in 50° east longitude to 
East Cape in Behring's Strait in 170° west longitude ; that is, 140° 
extent of coast ; in Europe from Nova Zembla in 50° east longitude 
to Baffin's bay about 70° west longitude, an extent of coast equal to 
120° ; and in America from the last point 70° west longitude to Cape 
Prince of Wales, 168° west longitude in Behring's Strait, an extent of 
coast equal to 100°. These including the opening of Behring's Strait 
and that between Greenland and Spitzbergen, comprise the whole circle 
of 360°, an extent of coast which no other detached sea in the world 
can boast of. It is a circle of two thousand four hundred geographical 
miles in diameter, and seven thousand two hundred in circumference. 
Considering the latitude of 70° to be the average boundary line, 
which it nearly is, by taking the inlets of the land, to balance the 
outlets of the sea, and in order to satisfy the malcontents, regarding 
the currents exhausting its waters, it may perhaps be sufficient to state 
what are its supplies ; they consist of the constant influx of a stream 
through Behring's Straits, of five or six great rivers from Asia : the Obi, 
the Jenisci, the Sena, the Indigiska, and the Kolima ; Europe supplies 
the waters of Dwina with numerous streams from the coasts of Norway 



22 SONNTAG'S NARRATIVE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

and Lapland, and the eastern coast of Greenland and the western coast of 
Baffin's Bay ; and America pours in several copious streams from the 
Rocky Mountains with the Mackenzie, the Hearne or the Copper Mine, 
the Bock, and several other minor streams. To talk, therefore, of its 
being exhausted by the southerly currents, is absolute nonsense. 

The main object of *fche English expedition in 1827 was, to discover 
an entrance from the eastern side of America into the Polar Sea. But 
it was not done by the first as it ought to have been done, and as the 
second (1835) most readily accomplished it, and, moreover, navigated 
one half of that sea to the westward, why then it may be asked, have 
future attempts failed to navigate the other half ? The answer is easy 
enough ; they failed by deserting the direct path that gave them half 
the passage towards Behring's Strait, and tried various new ways in 
search of openings into the Polar Sea, and found but one other on the 
whole eastern coast of America, and that one not navigable ; the old 
route of Captain Parry through Lancaster Sound and Barrows Strait, as 
far as to the last land on its southern shore, and thence in a direct line to 
Behring's Strait, was the route ordered to be pursued by Sir John 
Franklin, in his last and fatal voyage. 

The unhappy fate of Franklin, which for a time was involved in pro- 
found mystery, did not deter others from following in his dangerous 
track. On the contrary, a feeling of enthusiasm was awakened in his 
behalf and that of his sorrowing and devoted consort, whose untiring 
exertions to save him from protracted suifering, or a horrible death, 
excited the sympathy of all Europe and America. This feeling stimu- 
lated nautical adventurers to that activity which has characterized the 
recent explorations of the Polar seas. 

Captain Sir John Franklin, K. C. B., made several daring expeditions 
to the Polar Sea, but his endeavors to make further discoveries were 
only partially successful. His sufferings and hair-breadth escapes would 
have daunted almost any other man and deterred him from making other 
attempts of the same kind. But in 1825-26-27 we find Franklin again 
on a perilous journey to the polar climes. On this occasion he pro- 
ceeded over land to the mouth of Mackenzie River, and from thence, by 
water, to the northwestern extremity of the American continent. The 
particular object of this expedition was the exploration of the coast 
between Mackenzie and Copper Mine rivers. 

In this undertaking, Franklin started from Liverpool, February 6th, 
1825, and arrived at New York on the 15th day of March following. 
His reception in the last-named city was extremely cordial and 
flattering. Invitations to attend the meetings of the various scientific 



SONISTAG'S ITARRATIVE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



25 



institutions were sent to him and his party, and every other mark of 
respectful attention was shown by the civil and naval authorities, as well 
as by private individuals ; all of which demonstrations were indicative 
of the lively interest, which the Americans took in his enterprise. 
From New York city Captain Franklin and his party proceeded up 
the Hudson River to Albany, and from thence again to Niagara Falls, 
where they remained several days. Afterwards they proceeded to Lake 
Huron, where they embarked in canoes, and followed the water commu- 
nications to the western side of the Great Bear Lake, where he fixed his 
winter quarters. In the Spring of 1826, Captain Franklin pursued his 
way down Mackenzie River to the open Polar Sea. In December, 1827, 
the party, after undergoing unspeakable hardships, returned to England, 
where they arrived in safety ; but from his next Arctic voyage. Captain 
Franklin never returned. 




SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 



26 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 



in 1836-7, Captain Back of the English Navy, was sent on a voyage 
of discovery to the Arctic shores. He commanded the ship Terror, 
which had been chosen for this purpose. He made several important 
discoveries and having accomplished his perilous voyage to the satis- 
faction of the government which employed him, he returned in safety to 
his native country. 

In 1845, Sir John Franklin, notwithstanding his painful experience 
in Arctic navigation, incredible sufferings, and miraculous escapes 
from death, was induced once more to take command of a polar expe- 
dition. His subsequent adventures are not matters of history but of 
conjecture only ; and, until very lately, the world was in doubt whether 
he had ceased to exist or was still enduring a living death in some icy 
prison of the far North. In his final expedition, Franklin commanded 
the ships Terror and Erebus, the crews of both vessels amounting to on*' 
hundred and thirty-eight men. officered and manned as follows : 



EREBUS. 



TERROR. 



Sir John Franklin, Captain. 

Jas. Fitz James, Commander. 

Graham Gore, Lieutenant. 

J. D. LeVesconte, " 

Jas. Wm. Fairholme, " 

Chas. F. DesVaux, Mate. 

RoBT. 0. Sargent, " 

E. Couch, " 

H. F. Collins, Second Master. 

Stephen F. Stanley, Surgeon. 

H. D. GooDSiR, Assist. " 

Jas. Reed, Ice Master. 

12 Warrant and Petty Officers 

58 Seamen and Marines. 



Richard Crozier, Captain. 
Edward Little, Lieutenant. 
Geo. H. Hodgson, " 
John Irving, " 

F. Harney, Mate. 
RoBT. Thomas, " 

Thos. Blanky, Ice ]\xaster. 

G. A. Maclean, 2d Ice Master. 
Jno. S. Peddie, Surgeon. 
Alex. McDonald, Assistant. 

J. H. Helpman, Clerk in Charge. 
11 Warrant and Petty Officers. 

67 Seamen and Marines. 

68 Total. 



^ Captain Franklin was required, by his instructions, in the first place, 
to attempt a passage by Lancaster Sound, and any channel leading 
therefrom in the desired direction. The only intelligence of the 
Expedition ever received was in the first summer after its departure. 
When the want of further accounts from the exploring party began to 
produce a feeling of anxiety in England, a search was commenced by 
expeditions following on Franklin's supposed route, and others, entering 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 



27 



Behring's Straits with the hope of meeting him. Land-journeys were 
also undertaken for the same object. Most of these enterprises were 
planned and set on foot by Lady Franklin, the exemplary wife of the 




LADY FRANKLIN. 



missing traveller. At the solicitation of this meritorious lady, the 
American Government accepted a generous offer made by Mr. Henry 
Grinnell, a merchant of New York, who proposed to furnish two 
brigantines for the purpose of fitting out an expedition for the relief of 
Captain Franklin. All the preparations having been completed, this 
first American expedition to the Arctic seas sailed from New York in 
May, 1850, under the command of Lieutenant E. J. DeHaven, of the 
United States Navy. 

The American public need scarcely be reminded that this expedition, 
in company with that commanded by Captain Penny, discovered the 
first traces of Captain Franklin's party; these traces, however, were 



28 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

very melancholy and unsatisfactory, consisting of three graves with 
tombstones, the remains of several rude huts, and a wooden pillar 
bearing an inscription, which unfortunately gave no information 
respecting the route which the party intended to take. These 
mementoes merely indicated that Franklin had established his winter- 
quarters on that spot. The place was Beechy Island, which had been 
previously discovered by Captain Parry. It was a subject of much 
regret that no record of Franklin's intended movements was found, as 
that would have furnished a clue for the subsequent search. These 
discoveries, therefore, only intensified the anxious desire to learn more 
of the mysterious fate of the distinguished commander. 

The Senior Surgeon of Lieutenant De Haven's expedition. Dr. Kane, 
returned to the United States with a determination that something more 
should be done to restore Captain Franklin and his surviving followers 
to the world ; hopes being still entertained that some of the party, at 
least, might have lived through the terrific dangers, hardships and 
privations which they must have encountered and endured. Dr. Kane 
had adopted the opinion which was commonly held in England by 
persons acquainted with the circumstances attending Arctic navigation, 
viz : that Sir John, after leaving Beechy Island, had penetrated through 
Wellington Channel in a northern direction. This opinion was founded 
on observations which were made on the state and position of the ice, 
as reported by those who had discovered the traces of Franklin's 
expedition. In pursuance of the plan of search which had been 
devised by Dr. Kane, and other scientific men, assisted by the counsel 
of experienced navigators on both sides of the Atlantic, a second 
American expedition was determined on. It was to be conducted under 
the auspices of the United States Government, and was placed under 
the command of Dr. Kane, who had been detailed for that service by 
the Secretary of the Navy. 



CHAPTER II. 

CAPTAIN Kane's expedition starts erom new tore — affecting 

SCENES at its DEPARTURE — ARRIVAL AT ST. JOHNS — THE TRIBULA- 
TIONS OF THE ADVENTURERS BEGIN EARLY — THE EXPEDITION REACHES 
GREENLAND — MODES OF LIVING OP THE ESQUIMAUX — VISIT TO THE 
DANISH SETTLEMENT — FREQUENT AND TERRIFIC APPEARANCE OF ICE- 
BERGS — HOW THEY ARE FORMED, ETC. 

The new expedition to which reference was made at the close of the 
last chapter, was the result of private enterprise, and was fitted out at 
the expense of several wealthy and munificent citizens of the United 
States. The American Government merely extended its patronage and 
protection to the glorious object, by providing such scientific instruments 
as the undertaking required, and designated some persons under naval 
appointments, viz : 

THE BRIG "ADVANCE." 

Dr. E. K. Kane, Commander. Isaac J. Hays, M. D., Surgeon. 

Henry Brooks, 1st Officer. Amos Bonsall. 

August Sonntag, Astronomer. George Stephenson. 

■ George Riley. George. Whipple. 

James McGarry. "Wm, Godfrey. 

Henry Goodfbllow. John Blake. 

John W. Wilson. Jefferson Baker. 

C. Ohlsen. Peter Schubert. 

Wm. Morton. Thomas Hickey. 

In several particulars, the plan of the new expedition differed from 
any which had been attempted before. It was assumed theoretically 
that there existed an open or navigable sea on the north of the 80th 
parallel of latitude. The term open sea was understood to designate 
one which was so far unembarrassed with ice as to be navigable in the 
summer season. It was proposed to reach this sea, (if such a sea could 
be found) by that route which was apparently the most direct, that is to 
say, via Smith's Sound ; and to descend for the proposed search, to 

31 



32 bonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

the soutliern and western shores. The search was to he extended from 
the station of the ship by means of dog sledges, parties being sent 
out in various directions to establish depots of provisions in advance of 
the parties employed in the search. 

We left New York on the last day of May, 1853, amidst the accla- 
mations of thousands of spectators, who had assembled on the wharves 
to witness our departure. It was a radiant spring morning, the aspect 
of nature was cheerful and composed, but there was many a sad and 
agonized heart among the friends and relations of the voyagers, and 
the leave-taking was such as intimated that many fond parents, wives, 
brothers and sisters, feared that the parting would be forever. Many 
persons, at that time, regarded such a voyage as a desperate undertaking, 
and looked on the officers and crew of the Advance as persons self- 
doomed to certain destruction. They were, therefore, objects of general 
admiration and pity ; the noble and benevolent cause for which they 
sacrificed themselves consecrated the rash and suicidal deed ; and thus, 
according" to the fancy of many spectators, the humblest sailor who 
walked the deck of that ship appeared to wear the crown of martyrdom. 

But the expeditionists themselves were of a different temperament, 
otherwise they never would have offered themselves for such a service. 
The frowning genius of the icy ocean had no terror for them, but seemed 
to hold out wreaths of glory and renown for their acceptance. Accord- 
ingly they commenced their voyage with something like rapturous 
enthusiasm, which was scarcely checked by the loud and despairing 
lamentations of the dearest objects of their affection. In some cases 
the love of distinction appears to be the strongest passion of the human 
soul. 

At the very outset, however, the crew of the Advance had a 
foretaste of the troubles which awaited them. The passage to St. 
Johns, in consequence of unfavorable weather and other causes, was 
unusually tedious. We stopped at this port two days, and obtained 
nine dogs of the kind which is used in Newfoundland, Labrador and 
other northern climates, for the purpose of drawing burdens on the 
snow. All the fresh meat which could be obtained at St. Johns was 
bought for the purpose of "marling," a preservative process which 
consists in rubbing the outside with salt and enclosing the pieces in 
hoods of canvas. The authorities of St. Johns showed all possible 
kindness and attention to the persons engaged in the expedition, and I 
rejoice in this opportunity to offer them my grateful acknowledgements 
for their generous hospitality, and the assistance they rendered us in 
making preparations for our subsequent travels. 



sonntag's naerative of the grinnell expedition. 33 

From St. Johns "we proceeded to the coast of Greenland, where we 
entered several Danish settlements, which extend at intervals between 
latitudes 60° and 73°. These are a kind of missionary establishments, 
intended in some measure for the instruction of the natives, but serving 
at the same time to carry on a profitable trade in furs and oil. These 
settlements are under the charge of a Danish officer, who is called " the 
merchant," and who exercises the somewhat complicated duties of store- 
keeper and governor. The storehouse under his superintendence is 
replenished at the annual visit of a ship sent from Denmark for this 
purpose. His Excellency, (if we may afford him that title,) buys from 
the Esquimaux the skins of Seals and reindeer, and the blub'ber of 
whales, sea unicorns, &c., for which he gives them in exchange bread, 
coffee, butter, salt, and pork, which are almost the only articles of food 
these people obtain by commerce. The gubernatorial storekeeper 
supplies them, likewise, with coarse cloth, linens, and gaudy calicoes, 
for the fashionable Esquimaux ladies, who are desirous of improving on 
the seal-skin dresses of preceding generations. The storehouse is 
similar in appearance to one' of the large country stores of the United 
States. The habitations of the Esquimaux themselves are small huts 
of wood or stone, the seams of which are stopped with clay and moss, 
and the roofs are commonly covered with painted canvas. The floors 
are of wood, and, taken altogether, these savage dwellings are superior 
to the abodes of the Irish peasantry, and to those of the corresponding 
classes in many countries which pretend to civilization. The Esqui- 
maux hut, however, seldom has more than one apartment, and that 
single room often affords shelter and lodging for half a dozen married 
couples, with their numerous progeny. These small houses are 
extremely well lighted, one cortUek, or lamp, of blubber, being sufficient 
for that purpose. Some of the conservative Esquimaux, who are obsti- 
nately attached to the customs of their ancestors, warm their rooms with 
a kind of large blubber lamp, contrived for the purpose ; but others who 
are more progressive use stoves, some of which are made of clay, after 
the Russian fashion. Those of the Greenlanders, who aspire to be of a 
more refined and superior order, are supplied with pots, pans, and other 
'Cooking utensils of cast iron, which are furnished to them by the mer- 
cantile Governor. , 

At Fiskenaes, where the expedition was received with great hospi- 
tality and enthusiasm, we obtained the services of an Esquimaux youth, 
aged about twenty years, who afterwards became very useful as a 
hunter and driver of the canine teams, to which duty he had been well 
accustomed. This settlement occupies a spot which is picturesquely 



34 sonntag's narkative of the grinnell expedition. 

secluded behind some hilly islands, which partly obstruct the view of 
the village, without concealing it. These islands afford an excellent 
harbor. The settlement derives its Danish name from the abundance 
of codfish found in the adjacent waters. A large fleet of KyackerB 
surrounded the Advance on her arrival and escorted her into the har- 
bor. The native ladies, themselves, resolved to take their part in 
this grand reception, for they came out to meet us in their omeaks or 
little vessels, made expressly for the use of their delicate sex, being 
constructed of transparent skins stretched over wooden frames. The 
Greenland naiads can manage these " fairy frigates" with surprising skill, 
and their nautical abilities so charmed the hearts of some of our 
sailors, that they were received on board with much cordiality, and 
banquetted on the fore-deck with the most sumptuous fare that' Jack's 
aquatic larder could afford them. 

Fiskenaes drives a considerable trade in eider down, seal skins, cod 
fish, and salmon. The Grovernor, Mr. Lassen, who resides at this spot, 
is an intelligent and polite gentleman, with a portly person and ruddy 
countenance. His large pipe was in such incessant use, that it appeared 
to be a part of himself. He looked the very picture of Scandinavian 
hospitality, and he gave us a welcome that deserves to be coni!- 
memorated, spreading for us a board which groaned under all the 
oleaginous luxuries of the climate, and many imported ones, besides. 
The native delicacies of Mr. Lassen's table, the flesh of the seal, rein- 
deer, &C.5 were improved by the arts of European cookery, so as to 
make them highly grateful to civilized palates, and especially so to 
sailors, whose privations on shipboard are apt to correct their gastrono- 
mic tastes, when they happen to be too epicurian in their tendency. 

The next port we made was Suckertopper, which derives its name 
from a high peak in its vicinity, which is so called from its imagined 
resemblance to a sugar-loaf, with the white top protruding from its dark 
envelope. Suckertopper, in the Danish language, signifies " sugar- 
top." At this place we procured a quantity of seal-skins and other 
furs, also some additional saws, axes, and other tools, which we thought 
might be required in our further progress. 

From Suckertopper we proceeded to Proven, where we had the good 
fortune to obtain several more teams of dogs, numbering about thirty 
of these useful quadrupeds. Mr. Karl Petersen, who had been engaged 
as interpreter to Penny's expedition, came on board at Upenavick, where 
the Advance stood off and on to communicate. Dr. Kane accepted the 
proffered services of Mr. Petersen, and he became one of the ship's com- 
pany. His services were eminently useful to us afterwards. 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 37 

Soon after we left Upenavick, (which is the most northern civilized 
station on the face of the globe), among other indications of a higher lati- 
tude, which presented themselves, was the increased number of icebergs. 
The appearance of these was now so frequent, that they ceased to be 
matters of curiosity, and we learned to look on these stupendous and 
dangerous objects with a degree of indifference. Imagine a mass of 
congealed water, far exceeding in its dimensions the largest Egyptian 
pyramid, looming up above the surface of the water, higher than the 
tamest steeple, threatening, every moment, to topple over and submerge 
every object in its neighborhood. Such floating mountains of ice are 
continually presenting themselves to the view of those who undertake to 
navigate Baffin's Bay. They often enclose huge pieces of rock, and 
masses of sand or earth, which they take up, in the manner we are 
about to describe. 

The interior of Greenland may be considered as almost one entire 
mass of ice, as it is only on the mountains near the coast and on the 
smaller islands that the earth, with any of its vegetable productions, 
is visible. Immense processes of ice fill up the valleys and extend to 
the sea. The huge masses of ice resemble those of the Alpine glaciers, 
not such ice as that which is formed by the freezing of pure limpid water, 
bul more like snow, which is congealed to a solid substance after 
being partially melted. It is opaque and granular, and has a slow 
motion, in those vast frozen valleys, towards the sea. According to 
Professor Forbes' theory, their motion is similar to that of a semifluid, 
and is produced by the gravitation of the whole body on a plane 
inclined towards the sea shore, the foremost masses being urged on by 
the pressure of those which are more remote from the sea coast and 
higher up in the valleys. According to the observations of Professor 
Forbes, and the reports of travellers among the Alps, the ice moves 
more slowly on both sides than in the centre of the glacier, where the 
velocity amounts sometimes to a foot ^er diem, and sometimes still more. 
On its edges, the glacier takes up and carries along rocks, sand, and 
other movable objects, which fall into the sluggish stream, or are 
washed down from the surrounding mountains. 

When two such ice streams meet together and become united, the 
stones, sand, &c., which they hold in suspension, appear in the middle 
of the united streams. These ice-currents form continued lines, lonwi- 
tudinally and parallel to the sides of the valleys in which they have 
their origin. At the point where the glacier enters the sea, huge 
masses are formed, the pressure from behind heaping up the ice which 
has alreadv entered the water, in vast piles. Thus the icebergs are 



38 sonntag's naerative of the srinnell expedition. 

iorhiijl, and are driven by the winds and the currents out from the 
shore. In this way they are set afloat in the northern seas ; sometimes 
to a great distance. Large bergs are often seen as far south as the 
Banks of Newfoundland. 

The appearance of many icebergs is grand and magnificent beyond 
all power of description. Their size alone would make them objects of 
admiration ; but in other respects they are calculated to overwhelm th« 
spectator with awe and astonishment. Some of them appear like float- 
ing palaces, castles, or towers of stupendous dimensions, with spires, 
domes, or minarets, often formed with such regularity that the beholder 
is almost persuaded that they are works of art. Often when they re- 
flect the beams of the sun, or the more lurid glare of the aurora bore- 
alis, they appear like immense structures of glass or crystal. The 
colors of icebergs are various; the majority of them are white or 
vitreous in appearance ; but when seen on the shady side, or at a dis- 
tance, or through mists or fogs, they wear a dark and frowning aspect, 
resembling mountains on the shore, or precipices of rock. Sometimes 
again, their colors are variegated, and I have occasionally seen some 
which had all the hues of the rainbow, and no imagination could picture 
a more splendid spectacle. 

The motions or evolutions of icebergs are often no less awe-inspiring 
and wonderful. When some portions of them are melted away, and 
their form is thereby changed, so as to remove the centre of gravity, 
large masses often break off with a detonation like the explosion of an 
immense mine of gunpowder; the disrupted mass falling into the sea, 
produces a swell and agitation of the waters, which threaten to engulf 
ships sailing at a considerable distance from the dismembered iceberg. 
Sometimes the whole berg whirls over with the rapidity of lightning, 
and occasionally it makes several revolutions before it settles in a new 
position. These movements of icebergs constitute some of the most 
appalling dangers of Arctic navigation. It will easily be believed 
from what is here stated, that the approach of an iceberg is always re- 
garded by mariners with feelings of intense anxiety, and much care is 
taken to give these marine prodigies what sailors call "a wide berth." 
The j)rincipal risk is that of running against them on a dark night. 



CHAPTER III. 



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF ARCTIC NAVIGATION — 
"floes" and "hummocks" OF ICE DESCRIBED — SHIPS BUILT EX- 
PRESSLY FOR NAVIGATING THE POLAR SEAS — PREPARATIONS FOR PASS- 
ING THE WINTER AMONG THE ICE — WE BEGIN TO EXPERIENCE ALL THE 
HORRORS OF THE CLIMATE — GREAT MORTALITY AMONG THE DOGS. 



In the summer season, pools of water are formed in pure marble-like 
basins, on the top qf the icebergs, and cascades of clear and brilliant 
water often fall from them into the sea. Similar cascades and streams 
percolate through the glaciers. Owing to this cause, the surface of the 
glacier is very rough, being full of small chasms or indentations formed 
by the passage of the rivulets. 

I have stated that icebergs are often objects of dismay to the navi- 
gators of those seas; but after the mariner has become accustomed to 
their appearance, much of his terror is dissipated. While the bergs 
are visible, they may generally be avoided with but little trouble ; but 
in the dark season, or when the weather is foggy, the danger becomes 
more imminent. It is a fortunate circumstance that there is day-light 
during almost the whole of the navigable season on those waters. 

Still more formidable obstacles to navigation in those seas are the 
immense fields of floating ice which are formed in the sea itself. There 
are narrow passes or openings through these fields, called leads, in the 
technical language of the sailors, through which the navigator must 
penetrate, with the momentary risk of having his bark crushed between 
the sides of the icy chasm. These sides often collapse, or come 
together with a force more tremendous and irresistible than that of a 
tornado or earthquake. On such occasions, vessels built in the ordi- 
nary manner would be crushed like empty egg-shells. Some ships, 
however, are constructed expressly for this service, in the manner 
which I shall describe hereafter. 

The whalers and other northern navigators, when they do not find a 
" bight" or indentation in one of the parallel fields of ice, or floes, (as 

39 



40 SONNTAa'S NARRATIVE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

the J are technically called,) endeavor to saw one ; but, unless this is 
done before the motion commences, it is too late, and a fearful catas- 
trophe is inevitable. In many cases, ships have been cut in two bj the 
collapse of the fissure, so that the upper part of the hull was left on 
the surface of the ice, while the lower part went to the bottom. Some- 
times the destruction of a vessel is instantaneous, not affording the 
crew sufficient time to escape, by precipitating themselves on the neigh- 
boring ice-fields. It is authentically stated that Captain Penny, the 
veteran Arctic sailor, on one of these perilous occasions, was obliged 
to run up the rigging to the cross-trees, and to leap from thence to a 
platform of ice, a feat which he was just able to accomplish as the 
mast, with all the rest of the ship, disappeared in the closing chasm. 

These dangers have produced a necessity for constructing ships 
which are intended for Arctic voyages on a new and improved plan. 
The hull is formed with many additional beams and timbers, so as 
greatly to increase its solidity, and the sides are so shaped that, instead 
of being held fast by the collapse of the ice-crevice, the vessel is 
forced upward until it rises above the surface of the floe, and so es- 
capes without damage. The pressure of two floes or platforms of ice 
against the sides of a vessel is called, in the language of the sailors, a 
"nip." By these nips, vessels of the improved pattern just described 
escape the crushing to which ordinary ships would be liable, but are 
lifted entirely out of the water. 

Captain Kane's vessel, the Advance, received several quite noticeable 
" nips," without sustaining much damage thereby. She had been care- 
fully prepared for the duty which she was appointed to perform, and 
prqved that the ship-wrights of the United States could make their 
workmanship equal to any emergency. It is not only as a precaution 
against " nipping" that ships intended for Arctic service should be 
built in the most substantial manner that is possible. On other accounts 
it is highly necessary that they should be strong and well fortified. In 
order that any progression may be made, it is sometimes requisite, 
that they should be butted, under a full press of canvas, against " bight 
tongues," or ridges of ice, which join two heavy floes togeth'er, and are 
thus interposed, like a bar, across the passage, completely shutting it 
up. At other times, the ship must make headway against large pieces 
of floating ice, for the purpose of breaking them or thrusting them 
aside, in order to clear the track. Such pieces are often crowded 
together in water, which would otherwise be open. Obstructions of 
this kind yield, when a sufficient force is applied, and when it is neces- 
sary to overcome them, the ship is driven at full speed against lumps of 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 43 

ice, wliicli are almost as solid and obdurate as rocks. Any vessel 
built in the usual manner would, infallibly, be wrecked by such collisions. 

In such circumstances as we have described, the Arctic steamer, 
under the command of Captain Hartstcin, made extraordinary progresf» 
in her voyage through these seas. She was the very kind of vessel, 
which the purpose required ; it was necessary to hore a passage, and 
she was equal to the task. 

The Advance had a very fortunate and prosperous passage through 
Melville Bay, which name applies to that part of Baffin's Bay which 
forms a deep indentation, opening to the South-East, between 74 and 
76° North latitude. This is the most perilous passage in the whok 
range of Arctic navigation. Here the ice accumulates, after emerging 
from the Sounds which open upon the Bay, and here it is detained, 
within a certain centre, by opposing currents. Melville Bay is a vast 
wilderness of ice, and it is only on extraordinary and fortunate occa- 
gions that a few "leads," or narrow passages of water, are open for the 
purposes of navigation. The surface is covered with fields of ice, vary- 
ing in thickness from five to thirty feet, and extending in length for 
miles. Himamocks of ice and icebergs afibrd the only variety in the 
dreary prospects here presented to the observation of the mariner. 
These " hummocks " are commonly produced by the meeting of two 
large floes of ice, the edges of which break off, and are lifted up as the 
pressure goes on. These operations of nature are accompanied by a 
harsh grinding sound, additional fragments are broken off, and piled 
up, until a rough wall, of considerable altitud?, is formed. Other 
hummocks originate with pieces of ice, of unusual size and thickness, 
which rise above the surrounding surface, and become stationary by 
freezing in contact with larger and less mobile masses. By this means 
the hummock becomes a hill of considerable elevation among the smooth 
and level ice which surrounds it. 

Old floes are frequently found from twenty to thirty feet thick ; and, 
occasionally, their thickness is three times as great. The age of these 
floes can be estimated when it is remembered that within the first 
year the freezing seldom exceeds nine feet in thickness, and is 
often not more than six feet, and the yearly accession afterwards is 
still less — a phenomenon which we will account for in another part of 
tins work. 

To the North of Melville Bay is an expanse of water, which is usually 
free from ice. This expanse is known to whalers by the name of North 
Water. The Advance met with no very serious obstruction, until she 
had passed Littleton Island, in latitude 78°. Here we hove to, for the 



44 SONNTAa'S NARRATIYE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 

purpose of erecting a cairn and flag-staff. While detained in this man- 
ner—the weather being thick and foggy— the ice formed around the 
ship, and pinioned her, as it were, to the spot. We were obliged to 
wait a few days, when the ice fortunately relaxed, and our gallant 
Vessel was released. 

By means of persevering labor, we made some progress along the 
coast, where the ice was broken up somewhat by the rise and fall of 
the tide. Through the passages thus afforded, the ship was " warped" 
or forced along, by means of hawsers and lines wound around the cap- 
stan. This process is exceedingly toilsome and tedious, and tends 
much to dishearten the seamen ; however, it was the only means of 
progression which circumstances afforded us. 

Towards the close of the short-lived summer of this climate, the "bay 
ice," as it is called, begins to form. By this term the new ice, or the 
first ice of the season, is designated. This new formation being added to 
the old stock, makes the operations of the seamen still more difficult. On 
the present occasion, by the fourth or fifth day of September, the new ice 
had become strong enough to bear a man's weight, and before the middle 
of the same month it became necessary for the expedition to take winter 
quarters. The idea of passing several months among the dreary scene- 
ry of this region was gloomy and dispiriting enough, even to the most 
ardent temperament. However, we went to work energetically, and 
made all the preparations which promised to make our situation tole- 
rable, if not comfortable. The ship had nearly reached the latitude' of 
T8° 50' ;. but we were compelled to retrace our course for several miles, 
in order to find a place suitable for a winter harbor. The spot we 
selected for this purpose was in a bay, near three small islands, and 
only five hundred yards from the main land. In making our prepara- 
tions for warmth and shelter, during our long incarceration, a house of 
boards was erected over the upper deck of the ship, the holds being 
first cleared of provisions, which were stowed away in a hut built for 
the purpose, on one of the small islands. Our cooking stove was set up 
between decks. 

At this time several exploring parties were sent out to make obser- 
vations by land. One of these parties penetrated inland, through' the 
mountainous country, to the distance of fifty miles, where their pro- 
gress was stopped by a large glacier; perhaps a portion of -the same 
mass of ice which covers the whole interior of Greenland. This party 
consisted of three persons, who carried all their baggage on their 
backs. This baggage consisted of provisions and two small buffalo 
skins, intended to serve them for bed and bedding ; and, as you may 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 47 

suppose, the supply was scanty enough, considering that the couch on 
which they might be obliged to repose would probably be the frozen 
ground or cakes of ice. The average temperature noticed by this 
travelling party was 10°. 

The other journey was undertaken for the purpose of establishing a 
depot of provisions for the use of future exploring parties which might 
be sent from the ship during the winter. These excursionists travelled, 
for the most part, over the new ice along the coast. For the last fifty 
miles of their journey, they proceeded over a causeway, or elevated 
ridge of solid ice, the issue of an enormous glacier in the sea. The 
frozen sea all around was covered with innumerable icebergs, of all 
shapes and sizes, through which the ridge over which they journeyed 
formed a road as straight and level as if it had been artificially con- 
structed for the purpose of travel. It is highly probable that this vast 
collection of ice is a branch of the glacier which had been discover^ed 
by the inland party. This hideous journey lasted for more than a 
month, the temperature through the whole time being generally below 
zero. The party sheltered themselves every night in a small tent 
which was pitched on the ice. One bufialo skin served them for a 
mattrass, and another for a blanket, and these two skins constituted all 
their bedding, which, together with their stock of provisions, was car- 
ried on a sledge. The provisions which they took with them amounted 
to about six hundred pounds of pemmican, or meat minced and dried, 
and mixed with a large proportion of fat or suet. It is a fact very 
well known and sufficiently accounted for by physiologists, that the 
most greasy messes are the most acceptable to the human stomach in 
these intensely cold climates. However much a man may abhor such 
provisions when in more temperate regions, he soon learns how to 
swallow them with relish and avidity when his gastronomic powers are 
invigorated by the sharp breezes of the Arctic Ocean. The desire for 
animal food in these regions is insatiable. I apprehend that any dis- 
ciple of Graham, the renowned vegetarian philosopher, would find it 
necessary to abandon his principles, or his dietetic practices at least, 
if fate made him a wanderer beyond the polar circle. Notwithstand- 
ing the weight of their baggage and equipments, this travelling party 
proceeded, on an average, more than ten miles per day. On this and 
all future journeys made by parties sent from the ship during the win- 
ter, the tourists were obliged to obtain water for drinking by melting 
snow or ice, and this made it necessary to take a great quantity of 
fuel, alcohol or lard, on the sledge, a circumstance which tended great- 
ly to increase their burden. 



48 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

Nearly all of the Esquimaux dogs, and many of tlie Newfoundland 
ones, died in the early part of the winter. This extensive mortality was 
occasioned by a singular spasmodic disease, resembling the Asiatic 
cholera, which was very prevalent among the unfortunate quadrupeds ; 
however, their untimely decease was a greater misfortune to us than to 
themselves; as it, probably, put an end to their troubles, but increased 
the magnitude of ours. This fatal canine epidemic was produced, as 
we supposed, by a change of climate and diet; though it was a 
remarkable circumstance of the case that the Newfoundland dogs 
appeared to bear these changes better than the Esquimaux animals, 
though the latter were natives of a more northern region. 

The death of the dogs made the tasks of the men more laborious, as 
the duty of drawing the sledges now devolved upon them. The pro 
gross of the excursion parties was, likewise, much slower after we had 
lost the services of the canine teams, as the sledges could not be drawn 
more than ten or fifteen miles per diem by the men, while the dogs 
drew them, with ease, from forty to sixty miles. 



CHAPTER IV. 



OUR SITUATION BECOMES MORE AND MORE UNPLEASANT — THE ARCTIC 

WINTER SETS IN INTENSE COLD, AND ITS SURPRISING EFFECTS POLAR 

SCENERY — DREADFUL SUFFERINGS OF OUR EXCURSION PARTIES — WE ARE 
- VISITED BY THE SAVAGE ESQUIMAUX — THEIR PERSONAL APPEARANCE, 
DRESS, MANNERS, AND CHARACTER. 

The increasing darkness and cold made long excursions from the 
ship too perilous to be thought of during the remainder of the winter. 
The sun had disappeared on the 16th of October ; its last beams were 
seen shining rather dimly on the tops of the highest hills four days 
later, and this was our latest glimpse of the celestial luminary, until the 
arrival of the 24th day of February, in the following year, (1854). 
From the time of the sun's disappearance, the atmosphere became 
darker and darker every day. The twilight, which appeared at the 
commencement of the Arctic night of three thousand hours, and which 
was visible daily about 12 o'clock M., became dimmer and dimmer, 
from the eaijly part of November to the middle of January, when it was 
a little brighter on the southern horizon, at noon, than it was at mid- 
night. Only for a small part of each month, did the moon offer us the 
use of her pallid lamp, which sufficed, however, to show the vast desola- 
tion which surrounded us, and to give a more ghastly and 'appalling 
effect to the funerar silence which hung over the scene. The mountains, 
which bounded the horizon on one hand, were covered with a shroud- 
like mass of snow, relieved at some particular points by a few black 
cdiffs — the precipitous form of which would not afford a lodgment for 
the snowy mantle. 

The moonlight gave a singular, I had almost said an unnatural bril- 
liancy to the night — the radiance of the lunar orb being much increased 
by the reflex from the white surface of the sea and land. When 
the moon disappeared, "primeval darkness" seemed to return. The 
aurora borealis was often visible, but its light was too feeble to have 
any perceptible effect on the " solid darkness." 

4 49 



50 sonntaq's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

The cold increased simultaneously with the darkness. Mercury was 
frozen from the latter part of November to the end of March. The 
exhalation from our lungs began to congeal on our whiskers and mous- 
taches as soon as we left the ship, and our beards, which we cultivated 
as a useful article of dress, became solid masses of ice, giving us all the 
appearance of venerable patriarchs ; even our eyelids were encased with 
ice formed by the freezing vapor ; the hair and all the clothing near 
the head were coated with a thick frost, like a wedding cake. Whenever 
we looked at each other, we could scarcely -refrain from laughing, 
although our suflferings generally disposed us to be serious. Any arti- 
cle exposed to the air was almost immediately congealed ; mercury, 
spirits and molasses became solid, or acquired a gum-like consistence. 
Inside the ship, everything which was not directly exposed to ihe 
heated air soon obtained a coating of ice. Our occupations on board 
were various ; some of us passed several hours of each day in making 
scientific observations, and preparing for the spring journeys. Some 
employed themselves in reading, writing letters, &c. Various pas- 
times were devised, chiefly for the entertainment of the seamen, to 
whom this tedious imprisonment seemed to be an almost insupportable 
afiiiction. Among other amusements, we had private theatricals, and 
several of our performers might have been termed north-stars, as they 
succeeded in eliciting thunders of applause from the Arctic audience. 

Our people enjoyed better health and more comfort during the win- 
ter than we had much reason to expect. When daylight began to re- 
turn, we were amazed at the strange and rather awful appearance of 
each other's faces. Our complexions had become so pallid that we all 
looked like a company of ghosts, such as that which Homer represents 
Mercury as conducting to the infernal shades. This appearance I as- 
cribe to the long absence of the solar light ; it was not discoverable by 
the lignt of the lamps. 

On the 24th day of February the sun once more shone on the tops 
of the mountains, and a few days later his beams began to gild the 
tops of our masts. The re-appearance of the blessed luminary was 
hailed with the enthusiastic cheers and acclamations of our people, 
with the display of flags and other demonstrations of grateful joy. 
The long absence of light and heat, those two important elements of 
life, could not fail to have some depressing influence upon our minds ; 
but all sadness and discontent vanished as soon as the light of day 
came once more to cheer us in this frozen wilderness. 

For the greater part of the time the sky was perfectly unclouded. 
Although we now had glimpses of sunlight, the cold was unabated. Id 



sonntag's narkative of the grinnell expedition. 53 

fact some of the coldest weather we experienced was in the month of 
February, after the Arctic dawn had commenced. On several occasions 
within this month, the temperature was more than 60° Fahrenheit below 
zero. Such a low temperature would have been insupportable by any 
human constitution, perhaps, had it been accompanied hy wind ; but 
fortunately, the atmosphere was generally calm on the coldest days. 
The harbor in which the brig wintered was so well sheltered from rough 
weather that my observations on the temperature can give no perfect 
idea of the severity of the season in more exposed situations. Com- 
parisons of the temperature observed in the early part of the season 
by our sledge parties, showed that the cold was more severe by several 
degrees outside of the harbor than it was within, though all possible 
care was taken to secure our thermometers from any local or artificial 
influence which might be produced on shipboard. It was our general 
practice to place the thermometers on posts stuck in the ice hundreds 
of yards from the ship. 

The principal occupation of the officers and men now consisted in 
making active preparations for the spring journeys. Among the equip- 
ments provided were canvas boots, blanket-bags, large enough for one 
man to sleep in, reindeer skin stockings, mittens of the same material, 
and canvas tents of improved construction, the inside of which was far 
more comfortable than that of an ordinary tent. Many other articles, 
of minor importance, were also provided for our vernal excursions. 
About the ITth day of March, a party, well equipped in every respect, 
was ready to leave the ship. This party consisted of eight persons, 
who were commissioned to make a depot of provisions, (about five 
hundred pounds of pemmican,) on the opposite side of the channel in 
which our ship was stationed. This channel takes a north-easterly 
direction. It was found expedient to cross it in a northern direc- 
tion and to establish the depot on the north-west shore The provisions 
thus deposited, were intended for the use of another party, which had 
been appointed to continue the search to the north and west from that 
point which had been reached by the party sent out in the preceding 
autumn. The severe cold and the difficulties of the icy path, made their 
journey the most painful and troublesome one, that was ever accom- 
plished by mortal man. To give some idea of the embarrassments, 
occasioned by the frigid atmosphere which our travellers met with, it may 
be mentioned that it required more than two hours to cook a meal or 
boil a little coffee, and when these articles were prepared, it was neces- 
sary to swallow them as expeditiously as possible, or they would be 
frozen before they went down. The lodging, on the first night of the 



■54 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

excursion, was tolerably comfortable ; each sleeper being enveloped in 
the fur clothing which he usually wore, placed himself in a blanket-bag, 
and then stretched himself on the buffalo-skin mattrass on the icy floor 
of the tent, after which he tucked himself under the buffalo-skin cover- 
lid. These* arrangements answered very well for several nights, but the 
evaporation from the bodies of the sleepers became condensed on the 
blanket-bags and buffalo-skins, which acquired a lining of ice as soon as 
the men emerged from them in the morning, and after this, these bed- 
clothes were stiffly frozen, when they were required for use at night. 
The tent was covered on the inside with frozen vapor, which hung in 
large floes, and fell off like a heavy shower of snow, with the slightest 
shaking. The temperature inside of the tent, when the whole party 
was in it, was seldom warmer than 20° below zero ; while on the outside, 
' the air was twenty or thirty degrees colder. 

A few miles from the ship, the travellers found the ice exceedingly 
rough and full of ridges or hummocks, which made travelling very 
laborious. Very often it required great exertions to get the sledge 
over the hummocks, and sometimes this could not be done without un- 
loading. The labor of these operations was so great that, notwith- 
standing the severity of the cold, the men were often thrown into pro- 
fuse perspirations, and this was scon followed by freezing, the clothes 
being frozen together so firmly that they were not thawed asunder until 
the men entered their sleeping-bags. So many hardships and obstacles 
defeated the objects of the journey, and the travellers, finding that 
they could not reach their point of destination at the prescribed time, 
returned to the ship. Their progress had been distressingly slow and 
toilsome. When they had proceeded about forty miles, the feet of 
several of the party were badly frost-bitten after a day's march over 
the ice, with the temperature of the air 40° or 50° below zero, and a 
fresh wind blowing from the north-east. On the following morning the 
feet of four of the party were found to be so badly frozen as to make 
it impossible for them to walk. The other four were not able to trans- 
port them on the sledge, and so it became necessary to leave one to 
take charge of the sick, while three went back to the ship for assistance. 
After a painful journey of thirteen hours they arrived at the ship, and 
almost immediately after started again at the head of a new party, 
to carry comfort and succor to their disabled comrades. This last 
party, on account of the haste with which it was fitted out, could not 
be very well equipped for the journey, and the sufferings of the poor 
fellows are not to be described. The temperature during the whole 
time they were en route, was more than 40° below zero ; and to make 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 55 

matters still worse, there was a hard and piercing wind. Nevertheless 
they reached the tent, and succeeded in conveying the half-frozen occu- 
pants back to the ship, where two of them died a few days after, mor- 
tification having supervened in their frozen limbs ; -and two others lost 
several toes each. It was a long time before the other members of 
this party recovered from the effects of the severe hardships and expo- 
sures to which they had been subjected. 

The unfortunate issue of this journey occasioned considerable delay 
in the fitting out of another excursion party, which did not leave the 
ship before the last day of April. In the meantime the ship was visited 
by some savage Esquimaux, of very wild and grotesque appearance. 
While we were sailing up the channel, about thirty miles south-westerly 
from our winter harbor, we descried an Esquimaux hut, which exhi- 
bited all the signs of having been inhabited a short time previous. 
Some fresh meat and two bags containing blubber were found in it. 
Besides this, many other ruins or remains of Esquimaux habitations 
were found : also, graves, fox-traps, and other indications of a country 
lately inhabited, were discovered all along the coast. We were con- 
vinced, therefore, that this large tract of country must have been very 
densely populated at some former and not very remote period. 

The Esquimaux savages who visited us came in sledges drawn by 
dogs ; about seven or eight of the quadrupeds being attached to each 
sledge. These people were dressed in "jackets" or jumpers of foxskin. 
with hoods to protect their heads from the weather. Under their 
hooded jackets they wore vests or shirts of seal-skin, or the skin of 
some aquatic bird. They had likewise short pantaloons or " inexpres- 
sibles," made of the hides of polar bears, and boots of seal-skins, and 
dog-skin stockings completed their picturesque apparel; to procure 
which they seemed to have made extensive drafts on the animal 
kingdom. Their hands were covered with bear-skin mittens. 

The fur side of all the skins, except those which composed their 
stockings, were turned outwards. They had long black hair, which 
was divided in the middle, and hung down on each side to their waists. 
Their complexion was a light-brown. Their eyes were large, or rather 
long, and appeared to be placed in a more oblique position than the 
eyes of the human species usually are ; the outer angle being elevated 
towards the forehead. Their noses were invariably small, broad and 
flat. The large mouth exhibited a set of strong white teeth; their 
cheeks were extremely fat, and had a puffed-out appearance, but their 
hands and feet were small, though not exactly of a shape which I should 
call delicate. Some of them had small beards, but the majority of 



56 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

them were unprovided with such ornaments. In stature, they were not 
much below the average height of Europeans and the men of the United 
States. There were several females among the party, whose appear- 
ance was not at all fascinating, but some of the sailors, who are apt to 
have eccentric tastes in such matters, endeavored to improve their 
acquaintance with these Arctic ladies ; and I suspect that they found them 
less frigidly repulsive than their climate. These visitors approached 
our ship on both sides, having left their sledges at some distance. 
They appeared to be but little alarmed or embarrassed on finding them 
selves in strange company, and we were soon enabled to carry on an 
intelligible conversation through Mr. Petersen, our Danish interpreter, 
and the Esquimaux boy whom, as mentioned before, we shipped on the 
southern coast of Grreenland. They showed a great fancy for articles 
or utensils composed of wood or iron, and were much delighted with' 
several small presents of that kind. Everything on board seemed to 
excite their curiosity ; they were very inquisitive, and tormented us 
with questions on every subject which .occurred to them. One thing 
seemed to surprise them in a high degree, viz: that we should come on 
such a long journey without bringing any women with us, and they 
remarked that our condition must be very cheerless and disconsolate in 
the total absence of the other sex. Nothing, (they averred,) could 
induce them to submit to a similar privation. Their conversation, the 
details of which will not answer for publication, occasioned much merri- 
ment among our junior companions. These savages appear to be of a 
sanguine and jovial disposition, and their visit afforded a very acceptar 
ble relief to the tedium and monotony of our polar life. They showed 
very little relish for tea, coffee or any article of diet on board of our 
vessel, and what surprised us still more — they did not tax our liquid 
hospitality, showing no inclination for brandy, spirits, &c. They would 
drink nothing but pure water, an example of teetotalism which we cer- 
tainly did not expect from them, as we had heard some account of the 
bibulous propensities of savage tribes in general. The stories told by 
some travellers respecting the fondness of the Esquimaux for train oil, 
as a beverage, appear to be slanderous and without foundation ; none 
of those whom we met were inclined to any such practice, but treated 
all invitations to imbibe such greasy liquids as a mere joke. 

It is generally believed that people of a merry temper are disposed to 
be honest ; but this characteristic description would not apply to our 
Esquimaux visitors. They laughed almost incessantly, but were always 
on the alert when an opportunity to steal something was presented to 
them. Knives, forks, spoons, and other small metallic articles, seemed 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition, 59 

to be the principal objects of their cupidity. Some aspired to more 
considerable larcenies, attempting to possess themselves of our buckets, 
tinware, crockery, &c., and one fellow put himself to the trouble of con- 
veying half a barrel of coal to his sledge, with the intention of carrying 
it oflF. In short, their love of thieving was so inordinate, that no por- 
table article was safe within their reach, and they were as adroit in these 
felonious operations as any well trained " prig" in the christianised 
cities of Europe or America. When detected in a theft, they returned 
the stolen article very good-humoredly, without exhibiting the least 
shame or compunction. One of our india rubber boats, which had been 
left on the ice about six miles from the ship, had been found by them, 
and they immediately cut it open ; the floats which were left around it 
were likewise cut in two by these worthy gentlemen. This was pro- 
bably done from motives of curiosity, the same feeling which impels 
children to dissect their toys, in order to discover what is inside of 
tiiem. 

The Esquimaux will sometimes attack boats, for the purpose of»-rob- 
bing them, if the crews are not sufficient in number to protect them- 
selves. In Sir John Franklin's second expedition, July 1826, the 
crews of two boats were attacked by hundreds of these savages, who 
attempted a general massacre of the Englishmen, but did not succeed. 
On another occasion, Captain Franklin himself was beset by two power- 
ful chiefs in one of his own boats. They grasped him by the shoulders, 
and held him fast ; he shook them off several times, and stood on the 
defensive until a third chief grasped him by the arm, and thus prevented 
him from using his knife or pistol. They then attempted to paddle the 
boat to the shore. Captain Franklin being still held firmly by some of 
their party. As if to pacify him, the chiefs tapped him gently on the 
breast repeating the word " Seyma." As they approached the beach, 
two omeaks, filled with women, met them, and filled the air with excla- 
mations of delight on account of the prize which they supposed their 
countrymen had obtained. The Captain having been thus secured, as 
they thought, on shore, the Esquimaux men stripped themselves to the 
waists, drew their knives, and rushed to the other English boats, as if 
resolved on murder and pillage. Lieut. Back, and his crew, resisted 
manfully, and succeeded in rescuing many articles from the grasp of the 
robbers. However, the English were overpowered, and one of the 
Esquimaux had the audacity to snatch Franklin's knife and cut the 
buttons from his waistcoat. Many times during this scuffle the savages 
tried to carry off the box of astronomical instruments, but one of the 
sailors secured it by tying it to his leg, resolved, that, if they took it 



60 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

away, he -would be dragged off with it. The crews of the English 
boats were harassed and maltreated in this way for several hours, until 
the commander directed his interpreter to tell the Esquimaux that he 
would order his men to shoot all of them who came within reach of their 
muskets. This had the desired effect ; the thievish villains desisted 
from their operations ; but they had already stolen many things of 
incalculable value to the exploring party. 

This account will show that the Esquimaux know how to make them- 
selves unpleasant neighbors and disagreeable guests, when they take a 
fancy to do so, and a fair opportunity offers. 



CHAPTER V. 



SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX . DOaS — THEIR SINGULAR HABITS AND 
GREAT UTILITY — FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND 
SUPERSTITIONS OP THE SAVAGE ESQUIMAUX — WE OBTAIN ANOTHER 
DOG-TEAM, AND SEND OUT TWO NEW TRAVELLING PARTIES, ONE COM 
HANDED BY DR. KANE IN PERSON. 

The Esquimaux dogs, so highly celebrated for their utility as draught 
animals, have an extremely wolfish appearance. The head is long, the 
nose black, they have stiff, upright ears, like those of the wolf, and 
their hair or fur very much resembles that of the last named animal. 
Some of their habits are very remarkable. Every day they held regu- 
lar meetings, for what purpose we could not ascertain. One of the 
canine assemblage, who appeared to be the orator of the day, began to 
howl in a very impressive manner, curving his back and fixing his eyes 
very earnestly on the sky. After a while all the others began to howl 
likewise, producing a grand concert of vocal music, which the human 
portion of the auditory had not taste enough to appreciate. Their 
general appearance at these meetings is melancholy ; the chief speaker, 
or solo performer, might, to a fanciful observer, be supposed to com- 
mence the performance with a descant on the troubles and afilictions 
incident to a dog's life in the polar regions ; after which, the whole con- 
gregation unite in a grand chorus, to express their perfect agreement 
with the orator's views and sentiments. 

Notwithstanding all this display of fine feeling and delicate sensibi- 
lity, these dogs sometimes exhibit a very cruel and ferocious temper. 
Troops of them have been known to attack men and to devour children 
who happened to fall in their way. Greenlanders are sometimes killed 
by them, and when this happens, every bone of the victim is cleanly 
picked by the hungry brutes. In fact, to a solitary traveller the appear- 
ance of a troop of them is scarcely less formidable than that of a gang 
of wolves. Their size is very little less than that of a Newfoundland dog ; 

61 



62 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 



they have long bushy tails, which they carry in an elevated position 
over their backs, except when they are fatigued or hungry. By this 
sign the wayfarer may often judge when an attack by them is to be 
apprehended. For, unlike pirates or buccaneers, who hoist their flags 
when they design to make an assault, these canine freebooters of the 
North lower their caudal banners when starvation impels them to battle. 
The representatives of the canine race in this region do not bark, as 
civilized dogs are accustomed to do. Barking is one of those acquire- 
ments of the species which come by cultivation and an improved state 
of society ; although, like it is with many other improvements which 
follow in the track of civilization, its blessings or benefits are not very 
obvious. 




ESQUIMAUX DOG — IN HARNESS. 



When these dogs are taken into service by an Esquimaux, they are 
fed by their employers, in the summer season, once or twice in each 
week. In winter, their supply of food is still more scanty and unfre- 
quent, except when they are engaged in actual service, at which times 
their tasks are very severe. In these circumstances they are supplied 
with one full meal every day, or every second day, at farthest. 
Their food is similar in kind to that used by their masters, consisting', 



sonntag's nakrative of the grinnell expedition. 65 

for the most part, of the flesh of the seal, bear or walrus, but this meat 
IS seldom or never given to the dogs unless it happens to be in a 
spoiled condition. The dogs are sometimes fed with pieces of walrus 
skin, frozen and cut up in small shreds. When seals happen to be very- 
plentiful, a whole one, stripped of the blubber, is sometimes given to 
the dogs. However, as these animals have large appetites, they often 
suffer greatly on account of a deficiency of food. When anything 
eatable is thrown to them it is commonly torn to pieces and swallowed 
before it reaches the ground. When they are feeding, their ferocity is 
such that they would kill each other while fighting for the provisions, 
if whips and staves were not in constant use to keep them in order ; 
on this account some of the men, armed with weapons of terror and 
punishment, are obliged to superintend their Scythian banquets. 

When these brutes are harnessed for service, each dog is attached to 
the sledge by a line of seal or walrus skin. All run in one rank, at 
equal distances from the sledge. ' They are guided and controlled by 
the voice of the driver and the whip. Their speed and power of trac- 
tion are wonderful. A team of six or seven dogs will draw a sledge, 
laden with three men and baggage, at the the rate of fifty or sixty miles 
per day. On the ice, when it is level and there is not much snow on 
it, the progress is usually eight or ten miles per hour. Every dog 
keeps his place in the rank with great precision, unless thrown out by 
some unavoidable cause ; in that case, he immediately leaps back into 
his proper station. When travelling over rough ice, or hummocks, the 
Esquimaux dismounts and goes behind the sledge, where he takes hold 
of two pieces of wood which project like the handles of a plough. By 
this means, he guides the sledge, and helps it over the ridges and ine- 
qualities of the route. 

The sledge is supported on two runners, composed of wood and bone, 
the part which touches the ice being constructed entirely of the last- 
named material. Many pieces of both substances are lashed together 
with thongs of seal skia, so as to obtain a length of about seven feet, and 
a breadth of eight inches. These runners are formed in a very artis- 
tical manner, care being taken that the leathern strips which fasten the 
work together should not be exposed to any friction, as that would soon 
separate the parts. In front, the runners are slightly turned up. 
Pieces of wood and bone, about eighteen inches in length, are lashed 
cross-wise to these runners. At the back of the sledge there are two 
upright posts, about two feet long, to the tops of which a transverse bar 
is fastened. This dorsal fixture, when it is covered with a buffalo skin, " 
supports the back of the driver, and when the travelling is very much 
5 



66 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

embarrassed "with hillocks and ridges of ice, the same fixture serves for 
a handle, by means of which the dismounted traveller may lift his 
vehicle over the obstacles of the road, as I have njentioned before. 
The transverse bar is used, moreover, to hang hunting lines on, when 
the Esquimaux driver is engaged in a venatic enterprise. These hunt- 
ing lines are made by cutting the skin of a seal from the dead body of 
the animal, not lengthwise, as usual, but around the carcass, and re- 
moving it in a narrOw spiral strip. In this way a very strong lasso is 
obtained ; and one great advantage of this kind of lines is that they 
will not break when they have been soaked in water and afterwards 
frozen stiff. On the sledge a large seal-skin bag, similar in construc- 
tion to one of Uncle Sam's mail-bags, is placed as a receptacle for 
pieces of meat, knives, and other articles intended to be used on the 
iourney. The Esquimaux tourists usually carry some kind of arms 
with them, likewise, when travelling. Their principal weapons, on such 
occasions, are a lance and a harpoon. The staff or shaft of each of 
these weapons is commonly formed of the horn of the narwhal, seve- 
ral pieces of which are lashed together so as to make a pole about two 
inches in diameter and five or six feet long. The lower part or handle 
is made of ivory. The blade is of iron, and is shaped like a half-moon. 
These spears and harpoons are used both in hunting and warfare, and 
they have no other implements, except their knives and hunting-lines, 
for either occupation. The seal-skin boats, or kaiaJcs, which are used 
by the Esquimaux of the Danish settlements, on the western coast of 
Greenland, are not known, or at least not used by the savage tribe 
which I am now describing. 

The dress of the Esquimaux women who visited our ship differed very 
little from that of the men ; the principal variation was that their pantar 
loons were shorter and their boots higher. Their hair was gathered 
up in knots, and tied on top of their heads. As I have hinted before, 
their personal beauty, either of form or feature, was not of the most 
attractive character ; but they found some admirers among our sailors, 
whose attentions did not occasion any outbursts of jealous passion 
among the males of the visiting party. Their sang froid in these cir- 
cumstances was as admirable as that of any married gentleman of 
France or Italy. In joviality of disposition the Esquimaux women 
even transcend the men, although the latter are the most jolly fellows 
that ever my " conversation coped withal," in any climate, rank, or con- 
dition. They were all, male and female, very hospitably received on 
board of our vessel. It appeared from their conversation that they 
had no other idea of the object of our expedition than that we came 



sonntag's nakkative of the grinnell expedition. 69 

to their country for the purpose of hunting, which is the only business 
or pursuit of which they have any notion. Not being able to compre- 
hend the operations of weaving, they believed the linen, cotton, or 
woollen cloths on board, of the ship to be the skins of some kinds of 
animals. White linen they supposed to be the skins of our own coun- 
trymen, a mistake which was very complimentary to the fair com- 
plexions of the Anglo-Saxon race. Bread they took to be the dried 
meat of the musk ox, an animal of which many remains, skulls espe- 
cially, are seen in that country, though no living specimens are now to 
be found. 

The origin of the white race is thus accounted for by these savages : 
An Esquimaux woman once had the ill-luck to give birth to several de- 
formed children. Being ashamed of her oifspring, she put them into a 
shoe, and set them a-drift in the sea. The shoe increased prodigiously 
in bulk, changed its form, and became a ship, and the mis-shapen Esqui- 
maux brats became men and women of a burlesqued pattern, with 
hideously pale faces, and forms of an unseemly ji^jitline,' unlike that of 
their elegant and handsome Esquimaux ancestors. From this account 
of our origin, you may judge how they estimate the beauty and excel- 
lence of the Causasian branch of the human family. - 

They tell a somewhat imaginative story, concerning the sun and moon, 
which exceeds in extravagance any parable of Grecian or Egyptian 
origin. The sun, as they report, was once a fair Esquimaux maiden, 
bearing the pretty name of Melina. The moon was formerly her 
brother. She had often observed, when the light in the hut was extin- 
guished, that she was approached and caressed by some unseen lover. 
In order to discover who he was, she stained her hand with lampblack, 
and when her invisible adorer made his next nocturnal visit, she applied 
her hand to his face, and made a mark by which he might be distinguished 
when the lamp was re-lighted. By this means she discovered that her 
clandestine lover was her own brother. Horrified at this discovery, she 
fled from the hut, pursued by the iniquitous young rascal, who chased 
her over sea and land, until they came to the verge of the horizon, 
where she sprung up into the sky, or was conveyed thither by some 
divinity, who pitied her misfortunes. Her form was now changed, and 
became still brighter and more beautiful than it was before. In short, 
she was transformed to the solar luminary. The wicked lad, who still 
followed, was changed in like manner to the moon, and the chase is still 
continued through the azure fields of heaven. The face of the incestuous 
lover still bears the mark of lampblack ; the same mark which the 
inhabitants of other countries have mistaken for " the man in the moon." 



70 



SONNTAG S NARRATIVE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



Our Esquimaux guests informed us that they had seen an unusual 
appearance in the skies, some years Eigo, (referring to the solar eclipse 
of 1825,) and they concluded from thence that the two lovers (the 
sun and moon) had come in actual collision at last. The eclipse, as it 
appeared in that latitude, greatly alarmed them, their seers and wise 
men predicting that it would be followed by disastrous consequences. 
A correct view of this natural phenomenon as it presented itself to 
Captain Franklin and his companions on board of their ship, in Baffin's 
Bay, will be found below. 




ECLIPSE OF THE SUN. 



The drawing was made by one of the party and is certified to be 
perfectly accurate. 

A belief in the metempsychosis prevails in this country ; but the 
inhabitants are too fond of animal food to adopt the rule and regimen 
of the Pythagoreans. They suppose that the soul of a deceased Esqui- 
maux passes into some animal of a certain species ; and they pretend 
to know, in every case, what species it is. The relatives of the 
deceased, therefore, for a certain length of time, abstain from the flesh 
of that species of which some individual is supposed to be the present 
abode of their departed friend. Unluckily they do not know what 
individual contains the transmigrated spirit, and so it is a matter of 
conscience with them to reject as food all animals of the kind, lest they 
should happen to devour their own kindred. 

They have many ceremonies which correspond with the mourning of 
civilized people for the death of their relations. When an interment 
takes place, all the hunting apparatus and the personal equipments of 
the deceased are buried with him, according to the custom of the abo- 



SONNTAG'a NARRATIVE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



n 



rigines of the southern portions of the American continent. For some 
days after th« funeral no fire is kept in the hut inhabited by the sur- 
viving relations of the deceased. The mourners keep their heads 
covered for a certain time with the hoods of their jackets. They weep 
a great deal, even a long time after their departed friends are buried, 
especially when they happen to be the subject of conversation; and all 
strangers who are present at the time are expected to weep likewise. 

We obtained some dogs from the Esquimaux, in exchange for knives, 
poles and planks. These dogs, together with a few which survived 
the winter on ship-board, were sufficient to form one team. The expe- 
dition, therefore, had the use of one dog-sledge, at least, with seven 
powerful dogs to draw it. This sledge, and another drawn by men, 
were fitted out for another excursion, the travelling party, in this case, 
being commanded by Dr. Kane himself. It left the ship about the 
latter end of April, intending to pursue the search as much as possible 
according to the plan which has been mentioned before in this narra- 
tive. But only a few days after the party started, the leader was 
taken sick, and was obliged to return. This party, and the preceding 
one of autumn, 1853, had followed the north-eastern shore of Smith's 
Sound ; or more properly, the sea-coast above that locality. 

Still another party, consisting of two persons only, with the dog- 
sledge, was now sent out, with instructions to cross the channel in a 
northerly direction, and to search the north-western coast. This party 
travelled in the month of May, carrying with them scarcely anything 




OUR SMALL BOAT, 



72 sonntag's nakrative of the grinnell expedition. 

except a sufficiency of provisions, consisting entirely of pemmican, to 
serve themselves and the dogs for one fortnight, and two blanket-bags 
for sleeping in. The ice was still much in the same condition as was 
observed by the party which left in the preceding March. The same 
route which that party had taken was now followed up, the travellers 
proceeding with as much rapidity as possible over the unequal surface, 
the ridges and hillocks of ice often compelling them to dismount and 
lift their sledge over the obstructions. In this way they succeeded in 
crossing the channel, which is about seventy miles wide, and they made 
land on the western coast, in latitude 79° 50'. Their provisions and 
equipments were not sufficient to justify them in attempting a journey 
towards the north ; they therefore proceeded southwardly, along the 
west coast, and explored about forty miles of the coast-line without 
meeting with any traces of Sir John Franklin. The mountains on this 
coast are much higher than those on the eastern coast. Several deep 
bays and two islands were discovered. The interior of these islands 
appeared to be covered with a glacier, and in this respect, the country 
resembled that on the east side of the channel. The snow was very 
deep, which made the travelling extremely laborious ; but a much 
greater discouragement now pres^ented itself. The stock of provisions 
was exhausted, as it was impossible to carry a large amount of them 
on our sledge, and two men, together with seven dogs, require a 
considerable stock of victuals in a climate like this, Avhere every indi- 
vidual eats four times as much as he could in a more temperate region. 
For the last two days of the journey, the travellers were obliged to 
put themselves on very short allowance, and, of course, were much, less 
able to endure the cold. That these privations in the way of 'eating 
were rather severe may be judged from the fact that they were obliged 
on the last days of their journey, to breakfast, dine and sup on their 
own seal-skin boots and pantaloons ; dishes which cannot be supposed 
to have been very palatable or digestible ; and, besides, these articles 
of apparel could not very well be spared for the purposes of refection, 
when the low temperature of the air made a large supply of clothing 
necessary. They journeyed for the last seventy miles of their trip, 
Avith no better provision than that which has just been mentioned, 
cutting pieces from their boots and pantaloons, and masticating these 
dainty morsels as they proceeded. The reflex of light from the surface 
of the snow affected their eyes to that degree that they were' almost 
blinded, and suffered severely from pains in the visual organs. One of 
them was entirely deprived of sight during the latter part of the jour 
ney, and for several days after his return. It strikes me that this 



if 



rwrw' 




X^^S' - 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 



75 



inconvenience might have been prevented, in some measure, at least, 
bj wearing a shade of thin green silk over the eyes, to mitigate the in- 
tensity of the light. I would recommend Arctic travellers who find 
themselves in similar circumstances, to try the experiment. 

Owing to these various difficulties, the party was obliged to return to 
the ship sooner than was intended. The hardships endured by those 
who undertook these excursions, always caused sickness, more or less 
severe ; indeed, nothing less than experience could convince me that 
the human constitution can support such trials as I have seen it subjec- 
ted to in the high northern latitudes. 

At the time to which reference is now made, it was constant day-light. 
The sun which had set, for the last time that season, on the 19th day of 
April, was now constantly above the horizon. Even at midnight, its 
altitude was not less than twelve degrees, while its meridian altitude 
was thirty-five degrees, which was the greatest elevation it attained, 
except in November and January, when it may have ascended two 
degrees higher. The apparent movement of the sun, as witnessed 
from this point, is in a circle, not much inclined towards the horizon, 
below which, during the continuance of the Arctic day, it never sets. 
Notwithstanding the continuous sunshine, the thermometer always indi- 
cated a temperature much below the freezing point, in the shade. 
During the first part of June, and even in the warmest days of July, the 
temperature was seldom more than forty degrees above zero. 




sledge party returning. 



76 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

Before the last-mentioned party returned from their journey across 
the channel, another sledge, drawn by men, was sent out on the same 
route which was taken by Dr.. Kane in the preceding autumn. When 
the party with the dog-sledge returned, that sledge with its canine 
team and several men, was sent after the party which last left the ship. 
The dog-sledge detachment overtook the other near the southern 
extremity of the large glacier, which I mentioned as having been dis- 
coverd in the autumn preceding. 

Near this locality, while the men were sleeping in their tent, which 
had been pitched on the ice, a large white bear, who had been attracted 
to the spot by curiosity, perhaps, or the smell of the provisions, put his 
head into the door of the tent, and saluted the inmates with a growl 
which awakened them and made them start to their feet very promptly, 
to receive their unexpected guest with due courtesy. As the sleepers 
were enclosed in their- blanket-bags, and other dormitory appliances, 
it was some time before they could make any demonstrations, either of a 
friendly or a hostile character, and Bruin, in the meantime, forced his 
way inside of the tent, and deliberately smelled of each occupant, as 
ladies smell chickens in market, to ascertain if they are fresh and 
wholesome articles of food. The travellers were considerably annoyed, 
and, to say the truth, very much alarmed by this unseasonable visit, 
especially as no means of defence could be thought of in the exigency of 
the moment. Their rifle and shot-gun, the only weapons they possessed, 
had imprudently been left on the outside of the tent, and none of them 
had a knife large enough to be useful in this emergency. In these em- 
barrassing circumstances, one of the men bethought him of the expe- 
dient of lighting a box of lucifer matches, and applying it to the nose 
of the bear. This ofiensive operation only made the intruder raise his 
head, and stare at the offender with a stern and vindictive aspect, as if 
to check his audacity and presumption. In the meantime, another 
member of the party remembered a boat-hook, which was stuck in the 
snow at the back of the tent, on the outside ; and, in order to obtain 
the use of it, he cut a hole in the canvas with his pen-knife, and, to his 
great joy, found that the instrument was within his reach. He grasped 
it, drew it into the tent, and made a resolute punch with the spear-like 
weapon at the bear's countenance, which manoeuvre caused the animal 
to retreat to the sledge, where he began to devour some of the dried 
seal's flesh, which had been provided for the subsistence of the travel- 
lers. The man with the boat-hook followed him, and ^ith another punch 
drove him to the distance of several yards from the sledge, when 
another of the party seized the rifle, took aim and fired. The bear 



SONNTAG'S NARRATiyE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 79 

was Shot in the head, and died almost immediatelj. It was a large animal, 
much larger than any individual of the species exhibited at the menage- 
ries. The travellers cooked some of the flesh, which proved to be very 
unctuous, but not unpleasant to the taste. All who partook of it, how- 
ever, were very sick afterwards. It appears that the liver formed a 
part of the mess which our travellers obtained from the carcass of this 
- bear ; their sickness is attributed to this circumstance, as it is a general 
belief among the Greenlanders that the livers of bears are poisonous. 
No Greenlander can be persuaded to eat this part of the animal, and 
those of our people who used it for food, even in small quantities, 
experienced some disagreeable effects afterwards. The usual conse- 
quences were nausea, vomiting, and eruptions of the skin ; and, as 
these symptoms invariably followed the eating of bear's liver, it is 
highly probable that the opinion of the Esquimaux, in relation to its 
unwholesome qualities, is well founded. By the way, it may be re- 
marked that the flesh of the polar bear is far inferior, as an article of 
diet, to the meat of the black bear, which is found in more southern 
latitudes. The former has a fishy taste, which is offensive to some 
palates, and besides, the meat is harder and more indigestible than that 
of the black bear. 

After a journey of several days continuance, the travellers arrived 
at the provision depot, which had been made, (as I related before,) in 
the autumn ; but they found, to their great disappointment, that this 
depot had been overhauled by burglarious bears, notwithstanding great 
precaution had been used to secure the property from depredation. 
An enclosure had been made with stones, blocks of ice and snow, and 
the whole was cemented together by throwing water on the pile, 
which being instantly frozen formed a compact mass. The roof of the 
enclosure was formed in a similar manner; but the bears were cunning 
and skillful enough to force an entrance and carry off the spoils. All 
the provisions left for our use was of such a quality as their ursine 
lordships contemptuously rejected ; and it seemed that they had taken 
a malicious pleasure in playing indelicate tricks with some of the 
victuals which they did not consider good enough to be.eaten. 

At this point, the dog-sledge was laden with as much provisions as it 
could conveniently carry, and was despatched on a journey towards the 
north, with a travelling party consisting of two persons. They followed 
the direction of the glacier, which runs almost due north, and after 
some very toilsome travelling over rough ice, they came to the entrance 
of another channel running to the north, in lat. 80°, long. 67° w. from 
Greenwich. In this channel they found open water and abundance of 



80 sonntag's naerative of the grinnell expedition. 

living animals, especially aquatic birds. On the eastern shore, there was 
was much ice, of a formation so rugged as to prevent them from con- 
tinuing their journey, for more than ninety miles in a northerly direction. 
At this point, there is a precipitous cape, and beyond this all appearance 
of ice ceases. The channel is between thirty and forty miles wide, and 
the land on the west side appeared to be quite elevated ; so much so 
that it was seen, at a very great distance, in a northerly direction, from 
the last point which this travelling party was able to reach. From 
what has been stated it will be perceived that the situation of this high 
land must be north of 82° latitude. A gale from the north, which blew 
for a long time, did not bring any ice dovm the channel. From this 
we may conclude that there must be a mass of open water beyond this 
point. Remains of Esquimaux inhabitants, consisting chiefly of an old 
sledge, were also found on the eastern coast of this channel. 



CHAPTER VII. 

NUMBERS OP WALRUSES OR SEA-HORSES ARE DISCOVERED. — DESCRIP- 
TION OF THE APPEARANCE, HABITS, AND PECULIARITIES OF THESE 
ANIMALS. — SUMMER SCENERY IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. — VE&ETATION. 
— ANIMAL LIFE. — ARCTIC BIRDS, BEARS, FOXES AND RABBITS. 

In the channel spoken of at the close of the last chapter, vast 
numbers of walruses were discovered. As these animals have not 
been very accurately described by travelers and natural historians, I 
will here give the reader a description, which may not be found unin- 
teresting. The walrus is much larger than an ox. Though its forma- 
tion is similar to that of the seal, or sea-calf, and other amphibious animals 
— it is never found out of the water, except when reposing on the ice. 
The skin of the walrus is covered with short hair, like that of the seal ; 
its mouth resembles that of the lion ; the head is small in proportion 
to the size, of the body, which is very bulky and unwieldy. The upper 
part of the face is very much like that of the human species ; and the 
animal wears a kind of mustache, which gives him a military aspect, 
like that of a French officer. They have no external ears ; but are 
provided with four feet. Long tusks project from the mouth, one on 
each side, and these are as good ivory as the teeth of the elephant. 
The female is often seen lying on floes or cakes of ice watching the 
gambols of her young brood, which are usually two in number. When 
fishermen approach, or any other object alarms her maternal sensibili- 
ties, she takes up her interesting offspring, one at a time, and pitches 
them into the sea ; after which she herself plunges in, seizes her babes 
in her affectionate arms, and disappears under the ice, or water. The 
female of this species, as well as of many others, is more ferocious 
than the male, especially when she conceives it necessary to act in 
defense of her young. On such occasions, she is sometimes provoked 
to make an attack on the fishermen who approach her place of resort ; 
she then tosses her cubs from her, and with all her force rushes against 
the side of the boat, as if with the design of crushing it by the colli- 
sion. In combat, this animal is what some people would term " an 
ugly customer." It is impossible to kill one unless you can succeed in 
striking it on the forehead. At all other points they are nearly invul- 
6 81 



82 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

nerable. Walruses are more numerous on the western coast of Spitz- 
bergen than in Baffin's Bay, Behring's Straits, or any other part of 
the Arctic seas with which I . am acquainted. In fine weather, they 
resort in large numbers to large pieces of ice floating about the edges 
of the great marine glaciers. Hundreds of them are often seen in a 
herd, and many different herds may be in view at the same time. They 
appear to enjoy themselves very much, tumbling about on the ice and 
making the air resound with their bellowing, which much resembles 
that of bulls. Wheh they fatigue themselves with these diversions, 
they betake themselves to repose ; but these wary animals, before they 
resign themselves to slumber, always take the precaution of appointing 
a sentinel to arouse them on the approach of any danger. So univer- 
sal is the observance of this precaution, amongst the species, that no 
sleeping herd, however small, is ever seen without one wakeful fellow ^ 
in their midst, who stretches his long neck in the air to the full extent 
of the muscles, every half minute, and looks around him with a glance 
of anxious scrutiny. In case of any alarming appearances, the faith- 
ful sentinal begins by attending to his own safety ; and, as these ani- 
mals always lie huddled closely together, the motion of one is imme- 
diately communicated to the whole group, which instantly begins " to 
make tracks" toward the water. Having arrived at the edge, they 
pitch in head-foremost, sidewise, and in every imaginable posture — such 
is their hurry to escape from the object of their terror. 

On some occasions, however, they show none of the timidity which 
is imputed to them in this description. In the year 1818, Captain 
F. W. Beechy, while on an expedition to the Arctic seas, had a furious 
assault made upon one of his boats by a herd of walruses, or sea- 
horses, as they are sometimes called. It required great activity and 
perseverance on the part of the boatmen to beat them off. They rose 
in great numbers about the boat, snorting with rage, ?ind rushing on to 
meet their enemy with great intrepidity. They attempted to upset the 
boat by hooking their tusks to the gunwales, or by butting against the 
sides with their heads. It was with great difficulty that the men could 
prevent the boat from being capsized by these operations. Old whal- 
ers believe that these assaults, which are not of rare occurrence, are 
conducted and directed by some particular walrus of a daring and chi- ' 
valric disposition, worthy to be the commander of such a warlike band. 
The attacks are managed with as much order and military tact, (to 
say the least) as many of those which were made by the combined 
troops of France and England, at Sebastopol. In the case, which we 
have just been speaking of, the herds were so numerous, and one de- 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 85 

tachment after another came on so rapidly, that the party who stood 
on the defensive had scarcely time to load a musket ; and no other 
weapons except fire-arms could have the least efiect on such hard-, 
ikinned assailants. The purser of the English boat fortunately had 
his gun loaded ; and when the whole crew were nearly exhausted with 
the futile exercise of striking and punching at their assailants, he 
snatched up his piece, thrust the muzzle down the throat of the leader, 
and fired into his bowels. The wound proved mortal, and the captain 
of the marine corps fell back among his companions. The latter de- 
sisted from the attack to assemble round their dying chief, and olFer 
him their condolence and assistance. They actually bore him oflT 
with their tusks and assiduously prevented him from sinking. 

In the year 1608, one of these animals was taken alive to England, 
where it was exhibited to the king and court, but it died soon after its 
arrival. 

While on the journey last spoken of we saw a great many bears ; 
but as they were very shy, we succeeded in killing but two of them, viz., 
an old female and her cub. The meat was given to our dogs. This 
traveling party returned to the ship about the 1st of July. By this 
time the thawing season, or Arctic summer, had commenced. The 
water ran in large streams from the hills and formed pools on the sur- 
face of the frozen sea. These ponds were very great obstructions to 
the passage of the sleds ; and, at several places, they were almost im- 
passable. Snow-blindness was a great affliction and inconvenience to 
all our traveling parties, the disease being both troublesome and pain- 
ful. The party which had separated from this one on the south side 
of the glacier had returned to the ship some time before, all of them so 
much blinded that they were scarcely able to find the way back. 

As the season advanced, the appearance of the country began to un- 
dergo a change. The snow disappeared from the south side of those 
hills which were nearly perpendicular, showing the dark barren rock 
without any superincumbent soil or any appearance of vegetation. 
The white mantle of winter still overspread the more sloping declivi- 
ties, and the almost horizontal shelves — so that the hills presented alter- 
nate horizontal stripes of white and dark brown, or gray. 

At the bottom of the ravines were large pools of water, formed by 
the torrents of melted snow which descended from the mountains, with 
great power and velocity, leaping from rock to rock, and forming very 
brilliant cascades which fell into the capacious reservoirs below. Each 
cascade was attended by a wreath of mist or water-cloud, which in re- 
ceiving the rays of the sun, assumed all the colors of the rainbow. 



86 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

The lively motion and variegated colors of the objects, the thunder-like 
sound of the falling water and the rolling stones over which it flowed, 
formed a most striking contrast with the horrid gloom and stillness of 
the Arctic winter through which we had so lately passed. It was like 
a transition from death to life, and produced a feeling of buoyancy and 
exhiliration I cannot describe. 

At some favored spots — the rocks which flanked or surrounded the 
cascades were covered with a luxuriant growth of moss, very green and 
beautiful, and occasionally a dwarfish willow was seen projecting from 
the clefts, in which some little mold had accumulated. The stem of 
these willows was seldom thicker than a man's little finger. We saw, 
besides, a few poppies ; and a beautiful little flower which sprang up in 
some places from the thin soil formed on the surface of the rock. We 
observed that this flower made its appearance as soon as the snow dis- 
appeared from the ground, and its life must have been of short dura- 
tion, for we never saw it in any place which had been freed from the 
snow long enough to become perfectly dry. Occasionally, likewise, 
we met with small bunches of scurvy grass {eochlearia), which much 
resembles fhe water-cress in appearance and character. It is an edible 
plant, and we sometimes obtained enough of it to make a salad — a very 
great delicacy to people in our situation, who had tasted no fresh ve- 
getables for many months. In every place where there was any soil, 
something green appeared ; and the process by which nature tries to 
produce soil in these stony, desolate regions, is truly wonderful. At 
first, on the naked rock the stone-moss begins to form — this is so closely 
connected with the stone on which it grows, that it appears to be a com- 
pound of mineral and vegetable substance — the dry, small, and almost 
invisible leaves appear, at a short distance, like red, green, yellow, or 
black spots ; as these molder away, they are succeeded by a more 
dense and compact growth of green moss. After a considerable time 
this also decays, leaving a thin mold on the rocky surface ; and this 
mold becomes thicker and more susceptible of vegetation every year. 
From this statement it must appear that vegetation is slowly but con- 
stantly advancing in these regions ; and, be the cause what it will, it 
is obvious to me that the climate itself is gradually improving, and that 
the time must come when all this ground will be inhabitable. As more 
depth of soil is obtained, higher orders of plants and herbs will ap- 
pear — birds visit the locality, and a deposit of manure makes still 
further improvement in the productive energy of the ground. In all 
■places which have been frequented by birds or the Esquimaux, the vege- 
tation is always most luxuriant, and very often in such localities the 



onntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 87 

earth is covered with large plots of grass. The Esquimaux leave 
traces of their presence at every place which they have visited. .Ruins 
of their huts — circles of stones with which they fasten their summer 
tents to the ground — bones and skulls of the sea and land animals in 
which these people make their prey — and sometimes human skulls are 
found at the places where they once fixed their residence. 

The advance of summer made a revival in the animal kingdom like- 
wise. The little snow bird was the first feathered immigrant from more 
southern regions — snipes, ducks, geese, loons, and several species of gulls 
soon followed, for the purpose of depositing their eggs, which are easier 
protected here from predatory animals, than in the country where these 
fowls pass their winter. The charming little ptarmagan which passes 
the winter in this' climate, now changed its plumage. The raven alone 
underwent no variation — for. that "gentleman in black," who inhabits 
all climates, never changes his sable habiliments. This increase of ani- 
mal life was not so much observed near the ship, as it was more to the 
south, where the water was open. Although it was now near the middle 
of July, the ship was surrounded with a belt of ice forty miles in breadth, 
which separated it from the open sea. 

Foxes, which could often be seen and caught in winter, now became 
scarce. These animals are very different from the foxes of our own 
country — they are of two distinct varieties ; one kind is white, and the 
other dark bluish gray. They are smaller than the foxes of southern 
latitudes ; the blue ones, as they are called, have a very fine fur. They 
feed chiefly on birds, which they catch with great dexterity. Some- 
times they follow the bear as jackalls do the lion — to pick up the 
remnants of the larger animal's banquets. During the winter the foxes 
thronged about our ship and made strenuous efforts to break open the 
store-house in which our provisions were deposited on one of the small 
islands, situated near our winter harbor. We caught numbers of them in 
stone traps ; some of them were kept alive and domesticated on board, 
where they ran about the deck and became the pets of the sailors. 
They are easily tamed, and when permitted to range through the 
vessel they destroyed the rats and mice very effectively. In fact, no cat 
or terrier could perform this duty more faithfully. 

The rabbit of this country differs greatly from the common Ameri- 
can rabbit — being much larger, (some of them weighing more than ten 
pounds,) and they are perfectly white. We saw no walrus ; they are 
very scarce, or perhaps there are none of them on the eastern coast 
of Baffin's Bay. We saw some foot-marks there, which were either 
those of a wolf or of a very large dog. Several reindeer were shot. 



88 sonntag's narrative or the grinnell expedition 

These animals are very scarce and very shy in this northern country. 
The Esquimaux never catch any here, as they cannot approach them 
near enough for the purpose. The flesh of these deer, and that of 
the seal, was very useful to the ship's company as a remedy for the 
scurvy, some slight cases of which appeared among us in the spring 
months. ' 



1/ 







RtELFEa. ~ 



THREE GRAVES DISCOVERED BY CAPT. PENNY. 







if ^ ^;i 







CHAPTER VIII. 

TERRIFIC WATER SPOUT. — A THRILLING SCENE. — LARGE FIRE BALL 

PRECIPITATED INTO THE SEA. — SEALS, AND THEIR MODE OF HIDING. 

WEARISOME JOURNEY ACROSS THE ICE. — HOW THE ESQUIMAUX HUNT 
SEALS. — WATER TORRENTS. — WE PREPARE TO SPEND ANOTHER WINTER 
IN OUR SHIP, WITHOUT FIRES AT NIGHT. — GREAT SUFFERING. — 
FAILURE OF DR. KANE'S PARTY TO REACH BEECHY ISLAND. 

While we were off Clermont Tonnere, we had a narrow escape^ from 
a water-spout of more than ordinary size. It approached us in a very- 
awful and imposing manner, accompanied by heavy rain, thunder and 
lightning. The obscurity of the atmosphere prevented us from seeing 
the dangerous marine prodigy until it was very near the ship. As 
soon as we were within the sphere of its influence, a gust of wind struck 
the ship so suddenly that she was almost thrown on her beam-ends. 
All hands were immediately engaged in taking in the sails ; but before 
this could be done, some of the canvass, especially the fore top-sail, was 
split into shreds. The wind blew with astonishing violence, momenta- 
rily changing its direction, as if it were sweeping around in short 
spirals. The rain, which fell in torrents, was precipitated in curves, 
with intervals of cessation. Amidst this thick shower, the water-spout 
was discovered. It extended, in a tapering form, from a dense stratum 
of cloud to within thirty feet of the water, where it was hid by the foam 
of the sea, which was whirled upward with a tremendous gyration. 
These water-spouts are of common occurrence in the northern seas. 
In 1826, a similar spectacle was witnessed by Captain Beechy's explor- 
ing party, which was then detained by the ice in the Arctic ocean. 
Captain Beechy, in his report of this phenomenon, says that just before 
the water-spout appeared, a large fire-ball was precipitated into the sea. 
One of his boats was so completely enveloped in lightning that Lieu- 
tenant Belcher thought it advisable to get rid of the anchor by hanging 
it some fathoms under the water, and to put the seamen's muskets 
under a cover. From the account given by their officers, who happened 
to be at some distance from the ship at the time of the occurrence, it 
appears that the column of the water-spout first descended in a spiral 
form, until it met the column ascending from the sea. A second col- 

91 



92 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 



umn, and a third, were afterward formed at a short distance from the 



first ; and finally, these all united in one large column, 
separated into three small spirals, and then dispersed. 



This ,again 




WATER-SPOUT. 



In our wearisome journey across the ice, we had little time to hunt 
for animals. A considerable number of seals was shot during the 
spring and summer. They lie scattered about on the ice during these 
seasons; but they always take care to be near an "air hole," so that 
they may creep in and make their escape as soon as any living 
thing approaches them, or the slightest noise is heard. The hunter 
must, therefore, be very much on the alert, if he hopes to come within 
shooting distance before they retire from his observation. The Esqui- 
maux creep along the ice, screened from the sight of the seals by an 
interposing hummock, and by this means approach near enough to spear 
or harpoon the animals. But the hunter employed on board of our 
ship made use of a small sledge, on .which was a square screen of white 
cotton cloth, measuring about four feet each way, behind which he con- 
cealed himself, pushing the sled along before him until he came near 
enough to the seals to obtain a good shot. In the middle of the screen 
was a small hole through which the rifle was pointed and fired at the 
unsuspecting animals, who were not suflSciently acquainted with the 
tricks of human rascality to shield themselves from the unseen danger. 
When the seal is not killed on the spot, he usually contrives to get into 
the water and efiect his retreat, before the hunter can overtake him. 

Up to the middle of July the ice continued unbroken for many miles 
around our vessel, and it became doubtful whether it would be suffi- 
ciently broken up during that season to liberate the ship from her gelid 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 95 

fetters. Every evening, when the weather was clear and calm, a thin 
coat of new ice formed on the surface of the fresh-water pools which 
surmounted the old ice-fields. In fact, the season showed all the indi- 
cations of more than the usual frigidity. 

Our provisions were sufficient, perhaps, to last through another winter, 
but they were not of a kind or quality to secure us from the attacks 
of scurvy, if we should be detained in that region for a great length 
of time. Dr. Kane concluded, therefore, to attempt a boat journey to 
Beechy Island, in Lancaster Sound, where the head-quarters of the 
English Arctic squadron were established. The party started about the 
middle of July with a whale-boat, which had to be transported over the 
ice for about thirty miles before it could be launched in the open sea. A 
large field of ice, which extended across Baffin's Bay, from Jones' Sound 
to Whale Sound, offered an insuperable barrier to our progress. This ice 
was broken up into pieces so small that the boat could not be transported 
over them, and they were too closely packed together to permit the 
boat to push through them. In this mortifying state of affairs, all that we 
could do was to surrender to necessity, and return to the ship. This, 
in fact, we did after we had remained at this place for about a week, 
hoping for some favorable change. 

At the end of the first week in August, a water torrent, which had 
made a small channel in the harbor, swept away the broken ice to the 
distance of several hundreds of yards from the ship, and the rise and 
fall of the tides broke it up along the shore. As the ship was not im- 
bedded, she was soon afloat, and by blasting the ice around her we 
contrived to open a considerable space — outside of which, however, 
the icy barrier remained unbroken. In order to make further attempts 
at extrication, we tried the same expedients which we had used for- 
merly when coming up the channel. But to saw a track for a ship 
through thirty miles of ice, and to warp her along that track afterward, 
are undertakings which might have made Hercules himself shrug his 
shoulders and shake his head with apprehensions of a failure. As I have 
stated before, the belt of ice which surrounded the ship was thirty miles 
in breadth, and new ice was forming every day. After a day spent in 
great exertion by the whole ship's company, crew and officers, scarcely 
had we advanced so much as a ship's length. It was soon evident that 
open water could not be gained within the year, if our progress were 
no greater than this. However, the work was continued, until nature 
herself peremptorily forbade us to proceed. This happened about the 
middle of August, when the new ice, which had become strong enough 
to bear the weight of a man, connected all the broken pieces together 



96 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

so firmly that it was not possible to move them out of the way or force 
a passage between them. The ship was therefore presumed to be fast 
for another winter, and preparations were made for spending it as com- 
fortably as our much reduced means would permit. The cabin was en- 
larged, 80 that the fore part afforded accommodations for the men, and 
the cooking stove was placed in the new apartment aft. We had but a 
small quantity of coal left, and so all the spars which could be spared, 
and all the planks and timber which could be taken from the ship with- 
out making her unseaworthy, were cut up for winter fuel. Still there 
was not a sufficiency of burning material to enable us to keep up fires 
constantly, and the ship's company had to dispense with them during 
many of the nights. In consequence of this privation the temperature 
in the cabin was generally under 40°, and the cold was much greater 
near the floor, as the heat rapidly ascends. ^ 

The Esquimaux savages, who had not visited our ship since May now 
returned, as the new ice had become strong enough to bear them. They 
exhibited a more unfriendly disposition at this time than they did on 
their former visit. Several articles were stolen by them ; among other 
things a buffalo-skin, which one of the party carried off with scarcely 
any attempt at concealment. A boat, which had been left on the shore, 
at some distance from the ship, was partially broken up by the thievish 
scoundrels, and the oars were taken away. Probably they were encou- 
raged to commit these trespasses by the belief that we were tied up;, 
like the bear to the stake, without any available means of defense. 



CHAPTER IX. 

TROUBLES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS. — ANOTHER "WINTER SETS IN. — SCAR- 
CITY OF FUEL. — TWO BEARS VISIT OUR SHIP. — A BATTLffi. — SEVERE 
SUFFERING- AND SICKNEgS. — ESQUIMAUX ARCHITECTURE, &C. — THEIR 
SLEEPING APPARATUS. 

From the time of the return of Dr. Kane and his boat party from 
their ineffectual attempt to reach Beechy Island, (the head-quarters 
of the English expedition,) which was on the 6th of August, the 
anxious thoughts and hopes of all were directed to the breaking up 
of the ice, which we expected to take place. The season had effected 
a good deal toward bringing about this much-desired event. The frozen 
masses in the middle of the Sound, and indeed those outside of the Bay, 
were in motion. The ice in closer proximity to the vessel was very 
rotten, especially in those spots where the coal ashes had been thrown, 
the black surface absorbing more heat from the rays of the sun. Ice- 
bergs, moving in stately march, were seen in the seaward horizon ; and 
even streaks of open water could be discovered sparkling in the sun- 
shine. Dr. Kane had approached with his boat within five miles of the 
open water, by means of a " lead," or open channel among the ice, 
which extended along the shore. 

When the water streams had partly opened a passage for the ship, as 
mentioned on a preceding page, she was warped, close in shore, around 
the "islands which lay to the westward, and along the coast which ex- 
tended toward the north of the harbor. In this way, with immense 
labor and difficulty, we proceeded about a mile — still, for five miles at 
least, an almost unbroken sheet of ice was interposed between the ship 
and the open water. The last days of August found the avenue, or 
" lead" of water, in the neighborhood of the ship, choked with ice. 
Nevertheless, the new ice, which formed in rather strong cakes every 
night, was not yet solid enough to last through the winter. But very 
soon this state of things underwent a change. Before the end of 
August the ice would bear a heavy weight, and would have almost 
borne a wagon and team of horses in those places where it had formed 
for several nights in succession and remained unbroken through the 
following days. 

7 97 



98 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

During this period of suspense, the hopes of the party had depended 
on the probability that a heavy gale of wind and the consequent com- 
motion of the sea would break up the icy inclosure ; and you may 
imagine with what interest every change in the weather was observed. 
About a week after the solidification of the water was complete, a 
heavy gale did come on ; but it came too late to do us any good. 
Had this gale visited us one week sooner, it might have realized our 
hopes, by releasing us from the hideous bondage in which it was now 
our evident doom to be confined for another long period in cold and 
darkness. 

All the signs of approaching winter were now visible. The summits 
of the loftiest hills reflected the pale rays of the setting sun at two 
o'clock in the afternoon; the horizon opposite the sun was draperied 
with a dark purple. The crepusculum above the declining luminary 
was variegated with tints suggestive of cold ; but still beautiful, dis- 
playing a coronal of splendid violet and all the prismatic colors. The 
shadow of the icebergs became of a dark greenish color and a snowy 
shroud was spread over the shelves and ridges of rock and the whole 
landscape. The advance of winter was regarded now with a feeling of 
apprehension and more unpleasant forebodings than we had expe- 
rienced before ; because we were but indifi"erently provided with means 
and appliances of warmth and comfort. However, we continued to 
i!)ake every preparation our circumstances permitted. Fuel was the 
chief object of our solicitude. The coal was soon exhausted. All the 
loose spars, planks, and timber about the ship were cut up for firewood, 
and this stock was likewise consumed in the early part of the winter. 
Stern necessity then compelled us to make depredations on the ship 
itself; we cut away the bulwarks, the monkey-rail, many of the 
strengthening beams, the sheathing of the deck, and all the wood that 
could be spared. All this was done under the directions of our able and 
indefatigable carpenter, who was constantly engaged in the most ener- 
getic efforts to obtain fuel for the winter, — notwithstanding the state 
of his health unfitted him in a measure' for these tasks, the performance 
of which required much exposure and hardship. 

As our stock of fuel would allow us to keep but one fire, it was ne- 
cessary that the whole ship's company should live in the small cabin, 
to the length of which about twelve feet had been added. In this 
apartment our cooking and all the other domestic operations of the ship 
were performed. The temperature was seldom so high that water would 
not freeze in some part of the room, and it often froze within ten feet 
of the stove. One of our greatsst difficulties was that of keeping the 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 101 

mattresses dry, as the condensation of moisture on the sides and in the 
bottoms of the bunks produced a constant dampness among the bed- 
ding. The scurvy,, in a severe and dangerous form, prevailed among 
our people. All of the company, except four or five, were disabled by 
this disease, at one time or another, during the winter ; and the greater 
number of them were sick with it almost without intermission. 

About the end of October, two bears, an old she- one and her cub, 
were killed very near the ship ; and although at some former periods 
we had rejected the flesh of the white bear as unsavory and unwhole- 
some food, we were now glad to obtain a supply of it, as fresh meat of 
any kind had become quite a ra,rity. These bears afforded us about a 
thousand pounds of meat of an antiscorbutic quality ; whereas our 
only animal food before we succeeded in killing these creatures, were 
salted pork, beef, seal's flesh, &c., all of which, on account of its saline 
nature, tends to produce the scurvy and to aggravate the disease wTiere 
it already exists. 

These bears had evidently been impelled by hunger to approach our 
ship. Their object appeared to be the robbing of our depository of 
provisions; and in this enterprise they exhibited a boldness which was 
worthy of a better cause. When they were first discovered, they had 
mounted a pile of provision barrels situated about thirty yards from 
the ship ; and the old she-one backed down from the heap with one of 
the barrels grasped in her fore legs. When she had descended to the 
ice, she emptied out the contents of the barrel, and by significant ges- 
tures and her own example, invited her cub to make a hearty repast. 
In the mean time, all the men and dogs on board had been mustered to 
repel the robbers, and the dogs commenced the attack with admirable 
resolution. The old bear finding that she must fight for her dinner 
befor.e she would be permitted to enjoy it, seized the large dogs in her 
fore paws and pitched them to a considerable distance, apparently with 
the greatest ease. As for her biped enemies, she appeared to treat them 
with supreme contempt, as objects too insignificant to deserve her notice; 
and even the repeated volleys discharged from our fire-arms for a while 
made no perceptible impression on this haughty and heroic old lady. 
After a while, however, she began to think that something serious was 
to be apprehended even from us. One of our shots badly wounded 
her ; but she was not yet disabled, and she began to beat a retreat in 
good order. But her flight was retarded by the inability of her cub 
to keep pace with her, one of its legs having been broken by a pistol 
ball from a Colt's revolver, fired by Dr. Kane. Two well-trained E^- 
quimaux dogs started in pursuit of- the retreating animals, and annoyed 



SONNET AG's NARRATIVE OP THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



the old one on both sides. One dog would assail her on the right, and 
when she turned that way to defend herself, the other would make his 
assault on the left ; and so they kept up the battle, .assailing the retreat- 
ing party on each flank alternately, and with such good generalship, 
that the bear seemed to have the worst of the engagement and the dogs 
to require no aid from their human auxiliaries. Nevertheless one of 
our men leveled his musket at the unfortunate brute, and the bullet 
inflicted a wound which made her perfectly helpless, so that she was 
immediately dispatched by the combined forces of men and dogs. 
This we regarded as a more signal and complete victory than that which 
was obtained over the Russian bear by the combined forces of France 
and England. 




POLAR BEAR. 



The winter, at the very commencement, was unusually cold, even for 
that climate. In November and December, the temperature was often 
from 50° to 60° below zero. Snow was much more abundant than it 
was in the first winter of our icy captivity. Cold gales of wind were also 



SONNTAG's narrative of the GRINNELL EXPEDITIOli. 105 

very frequent. The Esquimaux suffered a good deal from the severity 
of the weather. As early as November they began to emigrate to the 
north; this to the uninitiated will seem to be an unaccountable move- 
ment ; but by way of explanation, I may state that the freezing begins 
southwardly. About 77° latitude, strong currents and the absence of 
" pack-ice" keeps the water longer open ; and for hunting the walrus, 
these savages find that the edge of the ice is the most favorable 
locality. 

There are, between latitudes 76° and 78° 20', about ten little Esqui- 
maux villages, each containing from two to five huts, but they are not 
all inhabited at the same time. These huts are most commonly built 
of stone, and they are always situated near the water. They have a 
dome-like shape ; the diameter of the interior being about eight feet and 
the height about five feet. The roofs likewise are made of stone, and 
in the construction of them the Esquimaux show a peculiar art. Some- 
times large whalebones are used for timber or rafters to support the 
stone roof. All unnecessary holes and crevices in these dwellings are 
carefully stopped up with moss ; and in winter the whole building is 
covered with a thick layer of snow. The way in which they put this on 
is somewhat artificial. With a sort of a hatchet made of the tusk of a 
walrus, the Esquimaux architect cuts out blocks of snow about a foot 
square from places where this gelid material has been drifted in piles 
or ridges by the wind. These blocks are used for tiling and stuccoing 
their dwellings ; and being very neatly put on, they give the building 
somewhat the appearance of white marble, besides making it more air- 
tight and comfortable. 

A long tunnel, built of the same materials as the hut, forms the en- 
trance. This tunnel, or vestibule, is just wide and high enough for a 
man to creep through ; and the floor of the hut is elevated about one 
foot above the floor of the tunnel, leaving a small aperture through 
which the Esquimaux enters his habitation, the passage being almost as 
diflSicult as Hans Spiegler (in German story) found the entrance to 
Paradise. The hole or portal is never more than a foot high, and about 
as broad as the master of the mansion's shoulders; so that if any larger 
individual were to attempt to follow him, he would probably be stuck 
fast in the gateway. At three sides of the hut (the entrance being on 
the fourth side), there are elevated platforms, (or bunks, as the sailors 
would call them,) which do the duty of bedsteads, beneath which pro- 
visions, boots, hunting implements, and all sorts of lumber are stowed 
away. The platforms, bedsteads, or bunks (or whatever title you 
may choose to give them), are heaped with dried moss and grass or hay 



106 sonntag's narrative of the grtnnell expedition. 

— which makes a warm and luxurious couch. It is a custom among 
these people to go to bed with their boots on, though the same trick in 
civilized countries is regarded as symptomatic of an advanced stage of 
intoxication. The Esquimaux likewise wear their mittens in bed; and 
as both boots and mittens are pretty well stuffed with moss or dried 
hay, the hands and feet of the slfeeper are well protected from the 
attacks of Jack Frost. The sleeping bunks occupy so much space in 
the interior of the hut, that little more than a square yard is left clear 
of the incumbrance, and in this small vacancy all the domestic opera- 
tions of the family must be performed. Their mossy couches are cov- 
ered with sheets or blankets made of seal-skins or bear-skins, and the 
walls of the hut are tapestried with the same articles. These skins 
in the summer time are removed from the huts and used for cover- 
ing tents, in which these savages reside during the^ warmer season. 
Across the top of the hut several poles are extended, on which the 
skins are stretched to be dried in the process of preparing them for 
use. 



CHAPTER X. 

ARCTIC SPORTSMANSHIP. — FREQUENT VISITS OP THE ESQUIMAUX. — LIFE 
IN THE ESQUIMAUX HUTS. — MODES OP COOKING, COOKING UTENSILS, 
ETC. — OCCUPATIONS OP MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN.— LAZINESS AND 
GLUTTONY OP THE ESQUIMAUX.-^THEIR HUNTING EXCURSIONS: DIF- 
FICULTIES AND DANGERS THEREOF.— INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF TWO 
YOUNG ESQUIMAUX HUNTERS. 

A PEW ptarmagan and rabbits were shot, while we had sufficient day- 
light to answer the purpose of hunting. This duty devolved chiefly on Mr. 
Petersen, our Danish interpreter, and Hans, the Esquimaux boy, whom 
we had shipped on the south coast of Greenland. They were both good 
marksmen and were very fond of the sport, in spite of all the incon- 
veniences which attended it in that region. The flesh of the animals 
which they " bagged" was eaten raw ; and even in that state, it was 
found much more wholesome than the salt provisions to which we had 
been confined, and which had been the means of introducing the scurvy 
among our people. As soon as this fresh meat was obtained, the in- 
valids on board began to recover. 

The Esquimaux savages now began to honor us with repeated visits. 
They1)rought with them some fresh walrus meat, and bartered it for 
knives and other small articles of merchandise with which we were able to 
supply them. We sent Hans and one of our men with the dog-sledge to 
one of the nearest settlements of our savage neighbors ; they carried 
with them some articles of traffic for which we wished to obtain more 
fresh provisions in exchange. This mission proved very successful, and 
we obtained thereby an abundance of wholesome victuals, the eff"ect of 
which on our 'sick people was wonderful. In less than a month after the 
arrival of these supplies all the invalids were much better, and some of 
them were soon restored to perfect health. 

Mr. Petersen, after his return to the ship, furnished us with some 
other particulars concerning the Esquimaux mode of living, which may 
be interesting to the reader. During the dark season, their huts are 
very well lighted by means of two large lamps, which are placed oppo- 
site the entrance on the edge of the platforms or sleeping bunks de- 
scribed in the preceding chapter. These lamps are made of soft stone 

107 



108 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

and are nearly in the form of a half moon ; the hollow part inside is 
about an inch deep and twelve or fifteen inches long, and this is filled 
with blubber or oil, the wick being of dried moss, which is first rolled 
our in the hands to a string-like shape. Over each lamp hangs a pot 
'of an oblong shape about three inches deep, which is likewise made of 
stone ; it is suspended from the roof, and is used for melting snow for 
drinking water, and also for cooking the meat, this being the best and 
only contrivance they have for that purpose. Around these lamps 
stand the crockery-ware or table equipments, consisting of two or three 
little round vessels made of seal-skin stretched over a framework of 
bone (which serve them in lieu of cups and saucers), and certain substi- 
tutes for plates which are made of the shoulder bladebone of the 
walrus. They have a kind of forks also, which are nothing more than 
pieces of bone pointed at one end. Sometimes they use metallic 
knives obtained from Europeans ; but if they have none of these, knives 
rudely constructed of bone are made to answer the purpose. Near the 
roof, above the lamps, is a small frame composed of transverse pieces 
of wood or bone, resembling our unglazed window-sash, which lies in a 
horizontal position, and is used for drying the clothing. 

By the side of each lamp, there generally sits an Esquimaux woman, 
the mother of a family, (two families usually occupy each hut,) who 
keeps the lamp trimmed and attends to the boiling of the meat or the 
snow-melting. The snow which is intended for conversion to drinking 
water is cut in square cakes of about one foot in size, and in this form 
is piled up in the hut ready for use. 

Within the small interior of one of these huts from eight to ten people 
usually reside, and sometimes a larger number. The animal heat of the 
occupants, with the radiation of two or three large lamps, raises the 
temperature, even in the coldest days of winter, to 90° or 100° above 
zero. In consequence of this excess of warmth, the inmates strip 
themselves quite naked, and sit or lie in crowds on the bed-place or 
bunk, avoiding the floor, where the cold air always settles. Here the 
women are seen attending to their domestic avocations ; the men, when 
at home, are either sleeping or eating, and the children are waddling 
about and eating likewise, whenever they have an opportunity. The 
whole forms a group which an admirer of unadorned human nature 
might contemplate with pleasure ; but to most spectators who have 
seen a better style of living and more favorable specimens of the human 
race, the sight is any thing but agreeable. In one of these huts you 
have an opportunity to inspect the anatomical structure of these people 
to the best advantage, as their personal charms are not concealed under 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. ill 

any kind of drapery. The huge square head, the muscular and almost 
herculean arms, and the well-developed breast of the Esquimaux, form 
a striking contrast with the thin, short legs and small feet. The upper 
part of the figure is that of a giant : the lower part is that of a child. 
Although I am not of a very facetious temper, I never could look 
at these undraperied figures without laughing. Their appearance 
reminded me of those incongruous pictures which are seen in the comic 
almanacs. The disproportionate form of the Esquimaux has been 
observed by former travelers, and it has been accounted for by referring 
to the circumstance that the men of this tribe pass a great part of their 
time in their boats or kaiaks, in which their upper limbs are exercised 
by rowing, while their legs remain perfectly inactive. But this expla- 
nation will not answer the purpose. The Esquimaux of the northern 
coast of Greenland, in whom this personal deformity is most conspi- 
cuous, have no kftiaks, and never learn to handle the oar. They exer- 
cise their legs I believe nearly as much as their arms ; for when travel- 
ing they run as much behind the sledge as they ride in it ; and, what is 
still more to the purpose, the children have the same corporal peculiarity 
before they begin to exercise either their legs or their arms. I will say 
nothing about the corresponding formation of the women, as delicacy 
forbids to touch on that branch of the subject ; but it appears to me 
that the oddity of shape observed among these people is hereditary and 
a peculiarity of the tribe. 

The occupations of the women, while they are in the hut, or tent, 
are not much varied ; the females attend to the lamps, (as observed 
before,) they do the cooking, sew the men's clothing, and attend to the 
children. Their maternal affections appear to be very strong ; but no 
signs of attachment or endearment among grown people — husbands and 
wives, for instance — are ever witnessed by strangers. Perhaps the 
men, like French and Italian gentlemen, are ashamed to be seen in the 
act of kissing their own wives ; but we never could discover that they 
were at all acquainted with the art of kissing, or that any practiced it 
in any circumstances whatever. My young readers of both sexes may 
find it difficult to believe this statement, but it is nevertheless true to 
the letter. 

The children assist their mother in the preparation of skins for wear- 
ing apparel ; the boys make fox-traps, which they set along the beach. 
The flesh of the fox is considered as a delicate article of food, and the 
skin of this animal forms an important part of the winter clothing. 

The men are excessively addicted to loaferism and gluttony. They 
take no more out-door exercise than is absolutely necessary to supply 



112 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

their families with food and clothing, and the greater part of their time 
is spent in their huts, where their only employment is eating, and their 
only recreation is sleeping. The quantity of meat which an Esquimaux 
man can consume is astonishing. Eight or ten pounds at a meal is 
supposed to be a moderate allowance. A whole seal is brought into a 
hut: it is speedily skinned and stripped of its blubber — the men, in the 
meanwhile, devouring the raw flesh without intermission. The women, 
all this time, are getting some portions of the carcass ready for the 
pot and boiling it, to furnish out the regular meal, as the gentlemen 
of the household consider the raw flesh which they have been swallowing 
in huge gobbets as a mere preliminary snack or luncheon. When the 
regular meal is cooked, they fall to with as much animation as if they 
had not broken their fast for a fortnight. They never discontinue eating 
as long as a morsel remains to be swallowed. 

Between meals they often solace themselves with a kind of sandwich, 
made by inclosing a slice of blubber between two pieces of seal's flesh, 
cut from a lump of meat which has been frozen. Among their greatest 
dainties, the livers of the seal and walrus take precedence. 

When the men go on a hunting expedition, they take a sufficiency 
of meat and blubber with them to last as long as they expect to be 
absent from home. They are seldom away more than forty-eight hours 
at a time. On these occasions their operations or repose are not regu- 
lated by the time of day. They hunt for twenty-four hours " at a 
stretch," perhaps, and then spend about as much in listless idleness. 
Their hunting operations are attended with much hardship and danger. 
One of the hunters is occasionally killed by a bear ; sometimes one of 
them drifts away on a cake of ice, and is never heard of afterward. 

A very marvelous escape of two young men happened in the winter 
of 1854-5. They traveled from their place of abode, situated about 
seventy miles from our winter harbor, to a distant village, at a season 
when traveling is most dreary and dangerous, namely, in the latter 
part of the month of December, a time when the cold is most severe 
and the darkness is most profound. Their purpose was to hunt the 
walrus, and in pursuit of these animals they took a route over the new 
ice. They succeeded in killing a walrus at a considerable distance 
from the shore ; but they had scarcely despatched their prey, when a 
tremendous gale of wind arose, which produced a commotion in the sea 
that broke up the ice and left them exposed to the mercy of the waves. 
They took refuge on one of the largest icebergs which happened to be 
within their reach, dragging with them the carcass of the walrus which 
they had killed. The berg on which they were stationed soon became 




r • :S:'!:l|ii!iiiiiiiiii;'iiif 







-^-■sS^ 



sonntag's narrative op the grtnnell expedition. 115 

detached from the surrounding ice and floated in the open water, being 
driven about by the winds. There was not even snow enough on the 
berg to make a hut, so they were obliged to encamp on the naked ice 
without any shelter ; with no protection from the cold except the clothing 
they had on, and no means for making a fire. Their only food was the 
raw flesh of a walrus, and the frozen blood of the animal was their 
only drink, if it may so be called. In this condition they lived twenty 
days ; when the gale ceased, and soon after the berg was again sur- 
rounded by young ice strong enough to bear them, whereby they were 
enabled to reach the shore. The place where they landed was about 
thirty miles distant from the spot from which the iceberg had started, 
and they were the first, perhaps, who ever traveled, so far on the same 
kind of conveyance. The feet of both of these persons were frost- 
bitten ; but one of them visited our ship a short time after this ad- 
venture, and he was then as well as ever. 

Other hunters have been obliged to abandon their dogs on the ice, at 
times when it broke up so rapidly that they were compelled to fly for the 
preservation of their lives. As lazy as the Esquimaux are by nature or 
habit, their situation compels them to bestir themselves occasionally ; but 
their indolence and ill-luck combined often reduce them to a deplorable 
state of starvation. During December of 1854, and the first two months 
of 1855, the kinds of game which they are accustomed to hunt were 
very scarce, and the wretched savages suffered terribly for want of food. 
Such was their necessity that they were compelled to slaughter their 
dogs and make butcher's meat of them ; but as these animals were as 
lean and emaciated as so many poets, an inconsiderable amount of 
food was obtained from their dead bodies, and the quality of the viands 
was such that they would not have been acceptable to any stomachs ex- 
cept the well-toned ones of the Esquimaux. Dr. Kane's celebrated 
suppers on fricasseed rats were much more savory. During this season 
of scarcity, the want of blubber with which to supply the lamps on 
which the Esquimaux depend for light and warmth in their huts, com- 
pelled the poor creatures to sit in the cold and dark. However, the 
famine lasted only for a few months ; and as the Esquimaux resembles 
in constitution the bear, the anaconda, and other voracious animals, 
they can endure hunger or a scanty supply of food for a long time, 
without much apparent inconvenience, taking care to make themselves 
amends by excessive gluttony when a plentiful supply of food is ob- 
tained. 



CHAPTER XL 

ESQUIMAUX HUNTING. — BEAR BAITING EXTRAORDINAEY. — WALRUS 
CATCHING. — SINGULAR CUSTOMS. — ESQUIMAUX GENEROSITY AND BE- 
NEVOLENCE. — EOURIERISM IN GREENLAND. — OUR SITUATION BECOMES 
DESPERATE. — ABANDONMENT OF THE SHIP AND THE MAIN OBJECT OF 
THE EXPEDITION. 

When the Esquimaux go on a bear hunting expedition, the first 
object is to discover Bruin's tracks on the ice. When these are seen, 
the dogs attached to the sledges go in pursuit at full speed. As soon 
as the bear appears in sight the dogs are released from their harness, 
and soon overtake the object of pursuit. They attack him on all 
sides, or rather menace him with battle, but take good care to keep 
out of his reach, seeming to understand that they are no match for 
the enemy at close quarters. In fact, the Polar bear can kill a large 
dog with a single stroke of his paw. While the bear is engaged with 
the dogs, turning around and around to repel them on all sides, the 
Esquimaux approaches and takes a fair opportunity to pierce the side 
of the beast with his lance. But one stroke is not suflScient to kill 
him, and the hunter must withdraw his spear and make another thrust. 
As soon as the bear is wounded he turns furiously on the hunter, disre- 
garding the insults of the dogs. At this critical* moment all the cau- 
tion^, skill, and tact of the hunter are required to save his own life. He 
watches every motion of the bear, steps aside to avoid his first on- 
slaught, and before the creature can wheel around the lance is again bu- 
ried in his side. It often requires many such wounds to dispatch a bear, 
or even to unfit him for battle. During the whole fight the wounded bear 
groans in a horrible manner, and the incessant howling of the dogs in- 
creases the frightful din of the combat. Considering how imperfectly 
the Esquimaux hunter is armed — his bone-tipped lance being but an 
awkward and comparatively inefficient weapon — it certainly requires 
some chivalric spirit to undertake such a combat ; and it is really a 
matter of surprise to find the human combatant generally successful, 
as the advantages seem to be on the side of the bear. When the ani- 
mal is slain he is immediately cut open by the victor, and the entrails 
are given to the dogs. By the joint efibrts of the hunters and the 
116 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 117 

dogs the carcass of a bear is soon made a bare skeleton, every eatable 
portion being devoured with astonishing celerify. 

The walrus is caught by harpooning, in which operation the Esqui- 
maux exhibit some dexterity. The hunters keep a watch on the edge 
of the ice, and as soon as a walrus shows himself above water the har- 
poon is launched at him. This instrument is fastened to one end of a 
stout strip of seal skin, the other extremity of which is wound about 
the hunter's body. His feet are planted firmly against a small hum- 
mock of ice, to prevent the animal from drawing him into the water. 
As soon as the harpoon is fastened in the body of the walrus, it dives 
below the surface, as the whale does in similar circumstances, but soon 
after reappears to take breath. At this moment the hunter hauls in 
the slack of his line and stabs- the animal with his lance; and this he 
does every time the walrus appears on the surface of the water, until 
it is killed. It sometimes happens that when the walrus is wounded he 
grows desperate, and comes up on the ice to make battle with his foe. 
But his form is so unwieldy and his motions so clumsy, when he is out 
of the water, that h6 is easily dispatched by his antagonist. The white 
whale, narwhal, and sea unicorn, are killed in a similar mariner. 

There is a singular law or custom among the Esquimaux in relation to 
the division of game, when several persons are present at the time it is 
killed. He who gives the first wound is entitled to the best part of 
the animal when it is killed ; but every person who is on the spot, whe- 
ther he assists in killing the beast or not, is entitled to a share. On 
other occasions much liberality is shown by these people. When one 
of them* has caught any animal, he dispenses a portion of it to his less 
successful neighbor. Likewise, when the autumnal hunting is unsuc- 
cessful among the inhabitants of the southern villages, they migrate 
to the northern settlements, the residents of which share with them, 
not their provisions only, but the use of the huts, sleeping conve- 
niences, and every thing else which their necessitous circumstances re- 
quire. I fear that so much brotherly kindness is rarely to be met with 
in Christian communities. A sort of socialistic system seems to pre- 
vail among these savages, but they have not yet attained to the last 
refinement of Fourierite philosophy— the community of wives ; and 
It is to be hoped that they will long remain ignorant of that modern 
improvement in man's social and domestic relations. 

The philanthropy of the Esquimaux is not confined to a narrow 
sphere. Their benevolence shines not only on their own countrymen, but 
on strangers likewise. Many persons attached to our expedition bear in 



118 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

grateful remembrance the many acts of kindness and friendly attention 
they received from these soi disant " savages." 

It has already been mentioned, that the fresh meat which had been 
supplied to us by the Esquimaux was the means ot restoring many of 
our people who were sick with the scurvy. This was a circumstance 
of great importance to the success of our enterprise, as some of the men 
who had been sick, and apparently at the point of death, soon became 
able to travel, or to make preparations necessary for a long journey in 
boats. We had now abandoned all hopes that the ship would be libe- 
rated from the ice that season ; and truly it appeared not very impro- 
bable that she had found her final resting place. In the preceding 
year, the sea had not opened within less than forty miles of the Ad- 
vance ; and, as the last winter was much more severe than the first 
one which we passed in that locality, there was good reason to suppose 
that the ice would not break up this year as far as it did in 1855; and, 
in that case, the escape of the ship would be still more difficult, and, 
in fact, hopeless. The subsequent event proved that these expectations 
were well founded. 

Our provisions were almost exhausted, and our fuel was entirely 
consumed. Every piece of wood which could possibly be taken from 
the ship without making her useless, had been burned before the middle 
of May. Writing desks, fancy boxes, and many other articles of 
considerable value, were likewise devoted to the flames. Some of our 
salt pork, which had become rather the worse for long keeping, was 
also appropriated to the same use. I verily believe that we would 
have burned whole cords or tons of the most popular books of the day, 
(especially novels and poetry,) or any other combustible matters, if it 
had been within our reach. 

We found, in short, that it was impossible to hold out another 
season, and no alternative remained for us but to abandon the ship 
and to attempt a passage in boats to those seas which are frequented 
by whaling vessels, or to the Danish settlements on the northern coast 
of Greenland. A council of the officers being called, it was unani- 
mously resolved that this retrogressive movement was imperatively 
necessary, and the only measure that could possibly save us from a 
horrible death by starvation. The reader will perceive that the jour- 
ney now concluded on was a virtual abandonment of the main object 
of our expedition. We had, in some respects, been more fortunate and 
successful than most of our predecessors in the navigation of the polai* 
seas; we had penetrated farther in a northern direction than any 
navigator, Captain Parry only excepted, had ever done before ; but it 
7 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 121 

must not be concealed that all attempts to make a satisfactory explo- 
ration of those seas and the adjacent regions have hitherto failed; 
and before I proceed farther with this narrative, I will endeavor to 
account for these failures in a manner which, I hope, will give the reader 
a true exposition of the grand difficulties and apparently insurmountable 
obstacles which have constantly frustrated the endeavors of the most- 
able, resolute, and energetic of the Arctic navigators. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE REASONS WHY ALL ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS HAVE BEEN FAILTTREg. — 
CAPTAIN parry's EXPLORATIONS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL. — SUGGES- 
TIONS FOR A NEW PLAN OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION.— THE POSSIBILITY 
OF REACHINi/ THE NORTH POLE. — HOW THAT OBJECT MAY BE 
EFFECTED. 

The nearest approach to the North Pole ever made by an European 
or American navigator, was the memorable achievement of Cap- 
tain Parry, on the 23d day of July, 1827, when he reached the high 
northern latitude of 82° 45'. The day was one of the warmest and 
most pleasant that Captain Parry had experienced in that climate ; and 
had it not been for the soft state of the ice and the strong southerly 
current, which operated against the northern progress of Captain 
Parry's party, it is conjectured that he might have continued his jour- 
ney to the pole itself. 

In a letter to the British Admiralty, dated London, Nov. 25, 1845, 
Captain Parry declares his belief in the practicability of reaching the 
North Pole by traveling over the ice ; and he attributes his failure in 
1827, solely to the causes spoken of above, viz., the mushy condition 
of the ice and the strong adverse current. Captain Parry thinks that an 
approach to the North Pole is not a matter of such difficult attainment as 
is generally supposed, provided the undertaking is begun and carried on 
in the right manner. All who have devoted much attention to the sub- 
ject, are thoroughly convinced that the Pole may be reached. Why 
then, it may be asked, has this object never been accomplished ? It 
appears to me that the ill success of Arctic expeditions in general admit of 
an easy explanation. None of these expeditions have been suitably 
prepared for the explorations intended. After remaining for a winter, 
or two winters perhaps, fastened up by the ice, every exploring party 
has been compelled to return for want of a sufficient supply of j)ro- 
visions and fuel. The account I have given of Dr. Kane's failure in 
this enterprise is, in the most material points, a repetition of the his- 
tory of every former undertaking of the same kind. The adventurers 
are invariably driven back by hunger and cold, from the eflfects of 
122 



bonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 125 

which, with better management, they might have been protected for a 
much longer time. 

The best plan for conducting a Polar expedition that has ever been 
proposed, is the following : — Only one ship should be engaged in the 
enterprise ; in this ship the exploring party should go to Spitzbergen, 
as Captain Parry did in the Hecla. But the time of starting should 
not be too early in the season ; for it was to that error chiefly that 
Captain Parry imputed his failure. The first object, or the main object 
for the first year, would be to find secure winter- quarters as far north- 
ward as possible. For this purpose it would be necessary merely to reach 
Hakluyt's Headland by the end of June. This would afford a sufficiency 
of time to examine the more northern lands, especially about the Seven 
Islands, where, in all probability, a secure nook might be found to 
serve as a station for the ship, and a starting point for the proposed 
expedition — which from thence would proceed by sledge conveyance over 
the ice and snow. This starting point might be fixed some forty or 
fifty miles in advance of the place where Parry's first winter-quarters 
were established. The winter might be passed in various preparations 
for the spring journey, and in magnetic, astronomical, and meteorolo- 
gical observations, which, being made in that latitude, would be of 
great interest and importance. The expedition should leave the ship 
about the middle of April, when the ice would present one hard and 
unbroken surface, over which, as I confidently believe, a progress of at 
least thirty miles per day might be made with little difficulty. Among 
the advantages of this course, I may mention that it would be 
attended with comparatively little exposure to wet and to that disease 
so annoying to Arctic travelers, called snow-blindness. Besides, the 
ice at this season would probably be stationary ; and thus the two 
great difficulties which Parry's party had to encounter would be entirely 
obviated. 

It would likewise be advisable to establish depositories of provisions 
one hundred miles in advance, by sending out a party for that purpose 
in the latter part of the winter, or at the beginning of spring, before 
the journey of the exploring party is commenced. By this means, the 
last-named party could begin the journey without being overburdened 
with luggage, as they would depend on the provision depot for a part 
of their supplies. 

With regard to the mode of traveling, it may be . remarked, in the 
first place, that expedition would be highly necessary, as the whole 
journey would have to be completed before the end of May ; or before 
any disruption of the ice or any material softening of the surface should 



126 SONNTAG's narrative of the 6RINNELL EXPEDITION. 

take place. During the absence of Ijhe exploring party supplies of pro- 
visions might be stationed along the route for the use of that party on 
its way back to the ship. With respect to the draught-animals to be 
used in this enterprise, I think that reindeer are far more eligible than 
dogs. The former have more speed and greater powers of endurance 
than the latter ; they are more healthy animals, equally as tractable, 
and require much less food ; and the latter would be an important con- 
sideration, as it would be desirable to carry as small a load of proven- 
der as would answer the purpose. 

A supply of these useful creatures might be obtained at Hammerfisk, 
on the passage ; and I think there would be no difficulty in keeping 
them alive during the winter, as they could be fed on such farinaceous 
food as the resources of the ship could supply. 

Nothing can be more admirable (the operations of the " iron horse" 
alone excepted) than the performance of the Lapland reindeer in har- 
ness. This deer is the paragon of traveling quadrupeds. Its docility 
is wonderful ; the Arabian courser is not susceptive of better training. 
With a simple collar of skin around his neck, a single trace of the same 
material attached to the pulk, or sledge, and passing between his legs, 
and one rein fixed, like a halter, around his neck, this intelligent crea- 
ture is perfectly under the command of an experienced driver, and is 
able to perform astonishing journeys over the softest snow. His 
motions are more easily directed than those of the horse. When the 
rein is , thrown over on the off side of the animal he immediately sets 
off at full trot, and he stops short the moment it is thrown back to the 
near side. Shaking the rein over his back answers all the purpose of 
the whip. For his maintenance the animal requires only four pounds 
of clean moss per diem, but in case of necessity they can travel five or 
six days without food; nor does this abstinence seem to affect their 
health or good spiritfe. The case is very different with dogs, which 
require a large amount of animal food — a sort of provision which is 
often very hard to procure ; and besides there is such a difference in 
the ability of the two, seeing that six or seven dogs are required to 
perform the same amount of work which one reindeer can execute with 
apparent ease. The only drink required by these deer is snow, which 
need not be melted for the purpose. They can sleep on the naked ice ; 
and, in short, they are the least troublesome and expensive animals 
that ever entered into the service of mankind. A reindeer can travel 
eighty miles in one day without much exertion. From what has been 
said I think it will appear that these animals would be of immense 
advantage to an Arctic expedition ; and the great wonder is that a 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 127 

truth so very obvious has not forced itself on the attention of every 
man who has attempted to explore any part of the Polar regions. 

The distance from Hakluyt's Headland to the Pole is six hundred 
geographical miles. Supposing that the traveler should proceed but 
twenty miles in twenty-four hours, only one month would be required 
to enable the adventurer to place his foot on the very pivot of the 
earth's axis. He might remain there a month, if necessary, to collect 
all desirable information, and then return in one of those easily- 
constructed canoes which are made and used by the Esquimaux on the 
southern coast of Greenland. The southwesterly currents, within a 
fortnight, or less time, perhaps, would bring him back to Spitzbergen. 

I am aware that many persons will see great difficulties and perils 
in attendance on the plan of exploration here proposed. But where is 
the undertaking which promises either glory or profit that has no 
attendant risks or inconveniences ? To the timid and irresolute 
objector, I will make the same answer which was given by that brave 
old navigator, Sir Martin Frobisher, when his friends would have per- 
suaded him not to engage in a northwest passage. " It is the only 
thing in the world (said he) that is left undone whereby a man of mode- 
rate abilities may become famous." We may still say that the North 
Pole is almost the only thing in the world about which we know 
nothing ; and the time has come (according to my views) when our 
ignorance on that subject admits of no apology. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

AN" ATTEMPT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION, "OF WHAT USE ARE ARCTIC 

EXPLORATIONS?" — "WILL THET PAY?" — HINTS FOR ENTERPRISING 

CAPITALISTS AND YANKEE SPECULATORS. — ADVANTAGES OP POLAR 

RESEARCHES TO THE CAUSE OP .SCIENCE — AN OBJECT WORTHY OP THE 

' NOBLEST AMBITION. — OBSERVATIONS TO BE MADE AT THE POLE. 

" What advantage would the world derive from a thorough exploration 
of the Polar regions?" I am sorry to say that this question, or some- 
thing like it, is often asked by men who pretend to intelligence and 
good judgment. The utilitarianism of this age is often extravagant in a 
high degree. Some people can see no use in any thing which does not 
immediately put money into their pockets. Pecuniary profit is the 
only consideration. A dollar-producing enterprise, whatever may be 
its objects and tendencies in other respects, is altogether glorious with 
them, and every thing else is a stumbling-block and foolishness. In 
order to meet the objections which such people make to Polar explora- 
tions, we may remark that the enterprise may "pay well," according 
to the common commercial acceptation of that phrase. We do not 
know what valuable productions of nature may be obtained from the 
lands or seas in the immediate neighborhood of the North Pole. If a 
tract were once opened, or a practical route and available means of 
travel and transportation were once devised, who knows what new fields 
would be opened for commercial enterprise ? Who can estimate the 
value of the Polar fisheries, or the Polar fur trade ? Who knows what 
handsome sums might be realized by conveying passengers to a spot 
where every object would be novel and curious ? The day may come 
when excursions to the Pole may be as much within the scope of Yankee 
contrivance, as Fourth of July excursions to Washington city or the 
Falls of Niagara. Who knows but that a veritable sign-post may be 
erected by some " Down East" speculator on the very turning-point of 
the terrestrial sphere, where a house of entertainment may be estab- 
lished, with a table richly furnished with all the delicacies of the cli- 
mate, and a bar well stocked with choice liquors, for the convenience 
of those who may prefer the North Pole, as a place of summer retreat, 
'• 128 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 131 

to Cape May or Saratoga Springs ? What an opportunity for a " good 
investment" is here suggested ! 

But apart from all considerations of a mere pecuniary nature, there 
are other objects connected with Polar discovery which should claim 
some attention from the men of this refined and intellectual generation. 

Dr. Samuel Johnson once said that the man who had seen the great 
wall of China might be considered as shedding a lustre on his grand- 
children. But, after all, what a comparatively insignificant thing is the 
wall of China i Many of our small-beer poets and traveling news- 
paper correspondents, in their desperate struggles for distinction, and 
their anxiety to obtain piquant materials for a paragraph, have scaled 
the broad parapets of the China wall and promenaded its summit for 
miles together, without being one jot or tittle the wiser or better for 
such achievements. How much more glorious in the estimation of every 
truly wise man, would be that individual who should succeed in placing 
his foot on the extreme point of the earth's axis ; and what a lustre 
would he shed on his descendants to the third and fourth generations ! 
To stand where no mortal man has trodden before — to perform what 
many adventurers and heroic men have attempted in vain — to walk 
over the most remarkable spot on the earth's surface — these, I should 
think, are objects which ought to satisfy any rational ambition — far 
more excusable objects of ambition than the slaughter of armies and 
the subjugation of empires. 

As the land adjacent to the Pole is all terra incognita, it is impos- 
sible to say what additions to the stores of natural science a visitor to 
those regions might be able to make. Certain it is, however, that a 
new and wide field would be opened for his investigation. Every thing 
there would be novel ; and that circumstance alone would be well calcu- 
lated to stimulate his attentive faculties. The diflSculties which would 
present themselves to the investigator may be appreciated at home ; 
but they would be greater or less according to circumstances of which 
we know nothing. We know not, for example, whether the Pole is 
covered with open water, or icy sea, or dry land ; nor do we know 
which of these three conditions would be mOst favorable for investiga- 
tion. It may be presumed, however, that an open sea would be, in 
several respects, the most disadvantageous. In the first place, it would 
in all probability be so deep that the ship would be unable to anchor ; 
and the current might be too strong to permit her to keep stationary 
long enough to make accurate observations. In the second place : if she 
could not maintain her position steadily at one point, the commander 
would experience a new embarrassment, viz., as every meridian must 



132 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

extend southwardly, he would be apt to lose that on which he had ap- 
proached the Pole — and consequently he would be at a loss how to 
shape his course homeward. 

The occurrence of this strange difficulty will naturally present itself 
as one among many novel phenomena which will arrest the adventurer's 
attention, and the following observations would probably occur to him 
on the spot. The time of day (to use that phraseology for want of any 
other that would be more appropriate) would no longer be marked by 
any apparent change in the altitude of the sun above the horizon ; be- 
cause to a spectator at the Pole no such change would appear, except to 
the small amount of the daily change of declination. Thus, not only 
to the eye, but also for the practical purpose of obtaining the time by 
astronomical observations, the sun would appear throughout the twenty- 
four hours neither to rise nor fall, but to describe a circle round the 
heavens parallel with the horizon. . Therefore, the usual mode of ascer- 
taining the time would utterly fail ; and indeed, however startling may 
be the assertion, it is nevertheless true, that time, or the natural dis- 
tinction of time, would be no more. This will appear from the con- 
sideration that the idea of apparent time refers only to the particular 
meridian on which an observer happens to be placed ; and is marked or 
determined only by the distance of the sun, or some other heavenly 
body, from that meridian. Now, as an observer at the Pole is on no one 
meridian, but is stationed at a point where all meridians meet, it is evi- 
dent that "apparent time" for him has no existence. 

Before Sir John Franklin left England on his last voyage to the 
Arctic regions, his attention was naturally directed to the best means 
of insuring his return from the Pole on the right meridian. The only 
two practicable methods which occurred to him, were : — 1. By the help 
of the compass : 2. By means of chronometers. From the observations 
which have already been made in regions far toward the North it may 
be considered that at the Pole, the magnetic needle would freely tra- 
verse, and that the compass would retain all its efficiency. For, as it 
is to the magnetic pole and not to the pole of the earth, that the needle 
is directed, and as the dip of the needle amounts to but 82° 22', at the 
most northerly point which has ever been reached, it is probable that 
the horizontal or directive force of the needle would remain strong and 
efficient at the Pole, and, consequently, that the magnetic bearing of 
any point on the globe might be ascertained by the instrument even at 
the Pole itself. 

Captain Parry on his voyage through Barrow's Strait observed some 
jremarkable phenomena in relation to the movements of the magnetic 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 135 

needle. The north end of the needle at one time pointed directly to the 
south, and then shifted to the southeast. The counteractive influences 
of the iron on shipboard made the compass entirely useless in that 
locality, as the attractive power of the iron nullified the directive force 
of the needle. But we need not apprehend that such effects would be 
witnessed at the Pole of the earth. For the reason specified above, this 
inconvenience would be very unlikely to occur at the extremity of the 
earth's axis, because the central point of attraction to which the needle 
is directed lies in a much lower latitude. Our readers may be aware 
that Captain Ross actually visited the magnetic pole, or the point so 
designated, and planted the British flag on the spot. Hence it appears 
that there is a sufficient difference of position between the magnetic 
pole and that of the earth to make the mariner's compass an available 
instrument at the latter. 

The other method of insuring the return of an exploring party on the 
right meridian, is by means of the chronometer. It is evident that to a 
spectator at the Pole, the sun, at the precise moment of apparent noon 
at any given place, would appear exactly in the direction of that place ; 
and consequently that the time of noon at that place ascertained by the 
chronometer, would be a certain indication of the right direction. But 
as watches are usually made with the hours on the dial plate marked 
from one to twelve only, a difficulty might arise in distinguishing 12 
o'clock at noon from the hour of midnight, in a place where there is 
perpetual sunshine and no change in the altitude of the solar orb to 
distinguish one time from another. To avoid the possibility of such a 
mistake, it would be necessary to use a chronometer, the dial-plate of 
which would be marked with all the hours from I to XXIV ; the hour- 
hand making but one revolution in the whole period. Then, when the 
chronometer indicated apparent noon at Greenwich, the sun would be 
exactly over the meridian of that place, and the same rule would serve 
for any other place of known longitude. 

It is impossible to say what benefits to the cause of science might 
result from an accurate examination of large tracts of sea or land, 
which had never been examined before. But with respect to the enter- 
prise now under consideration, there is one object of very great impor- 
tance, in a scientific point of view, which might be attained by a visit 
to the Pole, viz., the measurement of a Degree of the Meridian, com- 
mencing from the Pole itself. Many readers of this narrative are 
aware that the form of the earth has, long since, been ascertained to be 
that of an oblate spheroid, having its equatorial diameter much longer 
than its polar diameter ; or, in more popular language, the earth is 



136 sonntag's narrative or the gkixnell expedition 

turnip-shaped, being flattened or depressed at the poles. But it still 
remains a matter of doubt, in what degree this flattening exists ; and 
there is no conclusive way of settling that question except by the ac- 
tual measurement of a degree at the Pole, and comparing it with the 
length of a degree at the Equator. The attainment of this object alone 
would be an ample compensation for the labor which would be required 
to effect it. If a sufficient length of line could be measured on one of 
the meridians which are clustered at the Pole, the operation would require 
the most rigid attention, as the accuracy of many future calculations 
would depend on the precision of that measurement. 

The ellipticity of the earth may be ascertained by the swinging of a 
pendulum, but this method is liable to some objections. It is an ope- 
ration which may be conducted by one person however, whereas the 
actual measurement of the meridian line would require several persons ; 
and, as an increase of gravitation takes place from the Equator to the 
Pole, it is desirable that the requisite observations should be made at 
the latter point, or as near it as possible. But a ship on an open or 
icy sea would not afford a convenient locality for these experiments. 

Should land, or any portion of it, however small, be found at the 
Pole, or near it, all the required observations might be conducted to a 
successful issue. It may be presumed that if any such land exists, it is 
not of a mountainous character, as no icebergs are ever sent down 
from that quarter. These masses are known to be the products 
of glaciers on the sides of high mountains and in the intermediate 
valleys, especially those glaciers which exist in Spitzbergen and Green- 
land. 

On a piece of land, at or adjacent to the Pole, the pendulum may 
be swung, and the rise, fall, and direction of the tides may be observed. 
It would be interesting also, to examine the nature of the soil and its 
vegetable productions, the disposition of the strata, and the mineral 
products, if any. And, if the land be of sufficient extent, the meri- 
dional distance may be measured. 

The tides at the Pole would be a deeply interesting subject for exa- 
mination ; and many other important matters, such as magnetic pheno- 
mena, atmospherical electricity, and the aurora polaris, with various 
other meteorological facts, would claim the attention of the scientific 
observer. I hope, therefore, that the ultra-utilitarians themselves will 
concede that Arctic discoveries are of practical importance enough to 
justify the labor and expense which may be necessary to prosecute 
them to a successful result. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DEVOTIONS ON SHIPBOARD. — WE BID A FINAL ADIEU TO THE "AD- 
VANCE." — THE CELEBRATED BOAT JOURNEY COMMENCED. — APPALL- 
ING DANGERS OF THIS ENTERPRISE. — TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS. — NAR- 
. ROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. — DISTRESSING ACCIDENT. — DEATH AND 
FUNERAL OP THE CARPENTER. — A GRAVE UNEXPECTEDLY PROVIDED. 

Having resolved to abandon the ship, we all applied ourselves to 
making the most active preparations for our journey over the ice, 
which promised to be a very toilsome and unpleasant enterprise. Pro- 
visions were put up in canvas bags, made to fit under the seats of the 
boats in order that they might occupy as little space as possible. The 
mode of traveling we had decided on was by sledge conveyance, 
as long as the ice should be found solid enough to answer that purpose ; 
and after we had crossed the icy girdle which surrounded the ship, our 
plan was to proceed in the boats, (three in number,) which we were 
obliged to carry with us, as heavy and unwieldy as they were. To 
carry out this design, we constructed three sledges, each one large and 
long enough to carry a boat. The boats were placed on the sledges 
in the same positions which they would have assumed in the water. 
Our sick people and the provisions were then placed in the boats, each 
of which was very heavily laden ; and indeed to prepare them for the 
hard service they would be required to perform, it was necessary to 
strengthen the boats by additional planks and timbers, which of course 
greatly increased the weight. 

While these preparations were going on. Dr. Kane himself made two 
final attempts at exploration in a northern direction, his principal ob- 
ject being to cross the channel and to continue the examination and 
search which had been commenced in the preceding year. In pur- 
suance of this plan, he commenced his journey in a dog sledge with 
two Esquimaux attendants, one of them doing duty as a guide, and the 
other as driver of the dog team. But when he and his savage com- 
panions had proceeded to the distance of a few miles from the ship, 
some bear- tracks were unfortunately discovered on the ice — and then 
no persuasions or inducements could prevail on the Esquimaux guide 
and driver to proceed one yard further in the direction which Dr. 

137 



188 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

Kane wished to travel. They held to the opinion that the capture of 
a bear was an enterprise of infinitely more importance than any project 
which could engage the attention of Dr. Kane. The Doctor was en- 
forced, therefore, much against his inclination, to accompany his ardent 
companions on a bear-hunt, from which, when the first opportunity 
offered, he returned to the ship, very much out of humor with the Es- 
quimaux race in general, and with his late guide and driver in particular. 
His second attempt was equally unsuccessful, though from a different 
cause. The condition of the ice, a few miles from the ship, was such 
as to make sledge traveling impossible ; the whole surface being covered 
with hummocks and hillocks, over which the vehicle could not pass. 
These attempts having failed, the Doctor turned all his attention to that 
hazardous boat-journey which had been resolved on as the only means 
of extricating his company from the certain destruction which menaced 
them in their present situation. 

The preparations for this journey having been completed, all hands 
were assembled on the deck of the ship for the last time. Our com- 
mander then made a solemn and impressive address to the company, 
reminding them of the obligations which they owed to Divine Provf- 
dence for their preservation through so many dangers, and admonish- 
ing them to implore Almighty God for guidance and protection in the 
still greater perils through which they were about to pass. This address 
being finished, Dr. Kane read an appropriate and beautiful prayer, 
which had been written by the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of New 
York, expressly for the use of the Arctic expedition. There was some- 
thing in these devotional exercises, or rather in the circumstances which 
attended them, which was well calculated to impress every auditor with 
feelings of reverential awe ; and never perhaps did the incense of 
prayer ascend to the Throne of Grace from hearts more truly contrite 
and sincere, though our best and only temple was a dismantled ship 
clasped in the horrid embrace of the icy ocean. Many of the wor- 
shipers there assembled had lately risen from beds of sickness, and 
some of them were still afflicted with a painful and dangerous disease, 
with the gloomy probability before them that their last hours would be 
spent far away from home and kindred, with no sympathizing friend 
to whisper words of hope and consolation in the hour of death, and no 
pious drops of affection to soothe the anguish of their last moments. 
Even the wild and grotesque appearance of the worshipers, in their 
uncouth fur garments, added to the solemnity of the scene, by forcibly 
reminding us of our isolated condition, far removed from all hope of 
succor and aid from our own species. But we remembered that we 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 141 

were still in the hands of that powerful and benevolent Being whose 
dominion extends even to the uttermost parts of the earth, and this 
assurance inspired us with hope and confidence ; for we knew that no 
calamity could befall us, and no destruction overtake us, without his 
permission. 

It was in the afternoon of May 17, that, after the performance of 
the acts of devotion just spoken of, our journey was commenced. The 
atmosphere was very much obscured by a dense fog, and Nature her- 
self appeared to assume a gloomy and foreboding aspect. We began 
to experience the formidable diflSculties of our undertaking at the very 
outset. Our dog teams were useless at that time, as the strength of 
the animals was altogether unequal to the task of drawing the heavily 
laden sledges. It was necessary therefore that the men themselves, or 
such of them as were not disabled by sickness, should be employed in 
the severe labor of drawing the sledges through the deep snow with 
which the frozen surface of the sea was covered. A canvas strap 
was attached to each sledge, and the men, taking this strap on their 
shoulders and marching in Indian file, drew the ponderous load along 
by dint of great exertion, their progress being most discouragingly 
slow, scarcely exceeding half a mile per hour. A small troop pf pio- 
neers, armed with shovels and axes, went before, to free the track as 
much as possible from obstructions. 

When one sledge, with its superincumbent boat and lading, had been 
dragged by the tedious and laborious process I have described, to the 
distance of about one mile, the whole party returned to bring the se- 
cond boat in the same manner ; and so with the third, and last. In 
some places it was necessary to use levers to force the sledges over 
hummocks, and other obstructions which could not otherwise be passed. 
Dr. Kane, in the mean time, was engaged in conveying provisions in 
the dog sledge to a point some distance ahead, where, as soon as he 
had deposited one load, he returned for another. By the time at which 
the third sledge was dragged up to the spot where the two others were 
waiting, the men were all so thoroughly fatigued that nothing more 
' could be done that evening, although we had advanced scarcely one mile 
from the ship. To aiFord the men an opportunity for repose, canvas 
covers or awnings were placed over two of the boats, and all hands, 
(except one who was appointed to keep watch) " turned in," as the 
sailors saiy, or in the phraseology of the land service, went to bed. 
Meanwhile the watchman, who also exercised the functions of cook, 
prepared a pot of hot tea for the refreshment of his comrades whea 
they should turn out. 



142 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

The slow progress we made was disheartening, especially when we 
considered that, in all probability, the immense platform of ice over 
which we were traveling became more extensive every day, as the freez- 
ing process was still going on. The difficulty of traveling increased 
every day — the ice becoming rougher as we proceeded southward. At 
many places the current beneath had worn or washed the ice away, 
making it too thin and frail to aflFord us a safe pathway. Several 
times the sledges broke through, and it required our most strenuous 
exertions, for hours at a time, to place them again on ice that was 
solid enough to support them. Of course, the men broke through with 
the sledges, and several of them had very narrow escapes from drown- 
ing. One in particular disappeared under the ice, and we had given 
him up for lost, when to our great surprise and gratification he ap- 
peared at another opening, and was dragged out in a state of insensibi- 
lity, from which he recovered in about half an hour. Besides the 
danger attending these accidents, the repeated wettings which the men 
received were seriously afflictive — as the water in which they were 
submerged was of the temperature of melting ice, and we had no con- 
veniences for warming ourselves or drying our apparel. Another great 
trouble to us was the prevalence of snow-blindness among our party ; 
as this disease, besides producing a great deal of suffering, occasioned 
much delay and inconvenience, because every person afflicted with the 
malady was compelled to keep his eyes closely bandaged, and to be led 
along by some other member of the party who had the use of his eyes. 
And there was yet another cause of distress ; our provisions began to 
grow scanty, and that which we had was not of a very agreeable or 
wholesome quality. We suffered very much from this cause, especi- 
ally during the last days of our journey ; and we might have been 
absolutely starved had we not, by a fortunate accident, met with seve- 
ral Esquimaux hunters, who charitably supplied us with some sea-birds 
which they had killed ; and on these we subsisted for several days pre- 
vious to our arrival at open water. 

The temperature, which was below zero when we left the ship, became 
warmer every day; in consequence of this change, the snow became 
soft or mushy, and our men were obliged to travel all day with 
wet feet. As snow appears to have a peculiar tact in penetrating 
through every thing, our seal-skin boots afforded us very little protection 
from the damp and cold. As stated above, our progress seldom ex- 
ceeded two or three miles per diem, except on several particular occa- 
sions, when we happened to be favored with a fair and strong wind. 



■■^f^ 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 145 

At such times sails were, hoisted in the boats, and all hands getting 
aboard, we skimmed over the ice with considerable rapidity, but ex- 
perienced some difficulty in keeping the boats on the right course, for 
want of suitable steering apparatus. Sometimes our sledge-boats, when 
propelled in this manner, would be driven into huge snow-drifts, from 
which they could scarcely be extricated with all the exertions that we 
were able to make. 

On one of these occasions, our carpenter, Mr. Ohlsen, while making 
great efforts to return one of the boats to the right track, ruptured a 
blood-vessel and died in consequence two days afterward. His death 
was an irreparable loss to the Expedition, which had often been extri- 
cated from great difficulties by his energy and ingenuity • indeed, there 
was no man of the party whose individual efforts had been of greater 
service to the enterprise. The circumstances attending his death, as 
well as the loss of his valuable services, made a very painful impression 
on us all. Latterly he had shown a very anxious desire to return to his 
family, and he exerted himself more than ever to accomplish this object ; 
but when the principal obstacles were surmounted, and we were almost 
within view of the open sea, this most unfortunate accident took place, 
effectually cutting off all hopes of his retujjn to his wife and children. 
When he perceived that his speedy death was inevitable, the only feel- 
ings of regret which seemed to disturb the tranquillity of his last 
moments, were apprehensions for 4he welfare of his family, and the 
painful thought that he must die so far away from the dearest object of 
his affections. 

After he had breathed his last, the company halted for several hours 
to provide means for his interment. These means were scanty indeed, 
for we had not even boards enough to make a coffin ; but a tomb was 
provided for him in a manner most unlooked for and surprising to us 
all. We happened to be in the neighborhood of a small isolated spot 
of ground called Littleton Island, which had formerly been discovered by 
Captain Inglefield. As this offered a suitable place for burial, we took 
the corpse on shore ; and you may judge what was our astonishment 
when almost the first object we discovered on this island, was a grave^ 
which Nature herself had excavated from the rock ! The form and size 
of this sepulchre were exactly adapted to the melancholy purpose which 
we came thither to accomplish ; and while we performed the funeral rites 
of our deceased companion, a feeling of superstitious awe seemed to 
pervade the whole company, as we stood around the tomb which 
appeared to have been miraculously provided for the occasion. We 

10 



146 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

covered the grave with moss and stones, securing it from the depreda- 
tion of wild beasts ; and this was the only monument we could afford to 
the memory of a man who had perished in the service of the cause of 
science, and who better deserves to be held in grateful remembrance 
than many whose epitaphs and dubious panegyrics are recorded on 
brass and marble. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ARRIVAL AT OPEN WATER. — EMBARKATION. — ADVENTURES AT SEA. — 
ARRIVAL AT HAKLUYT'S ISLAND. — GREAT SPORTSMANSHIP. — DREARY 
ASPECT OF THE COAST. — THE TRANSPORTATION OF ROCKS BY ICEBERGS. 
— SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. — LARGE SUPPLIES OF DUCK EGGS. — WANT 
OF FUEL TO COOK THEM. 

A FEW days after the sad accident recorded in the last chapter, we 
reached the edge of the open water, which, in that direction and at 
that time, was eighty miles from the ship ; but, as we had been com- 
pelled to proceed in a circuitous course, we must have traveled over two 
two hundred miles of ice. But as soon as we arrived at the open sea 
a heavy gale from the southwest set in, which broke up the ice at the 
edges without floating it away ; and, for several days, the boats were 
obliged to retreat, in order to find a secure position on the fast ice, as 
the breaking up at the edge was continued by the heavy swell from the 
southwest. The open sea, which now rolled before us in all its majesty, 
presented a grand spectacle, and a very agreeable one to us. The 
large, unincumbered expanse of water was bounded only by the hori- 
zon; no other limits were discoverable even from the tallest ice-hills. 
The dark color of this watery expanse was to us an object of curiosity, 
so strongly was it contrasted with the white surfaces of ice and snow 
to which we had been accustomed for two years. The change was a 
most grateful relief to the diseased eyes of some of our people, who had 
been almost deprived of the sense of sight by the dazzling brightness 
of the snow and ice. 

Large icebergs were seen in rapid motion ; the high, white-capped 
waves breaking on them and dashing the spray aloft, while the sun- 
beams, glancing through the misty showers, imparted to them all the 
richest and loveliest tints of the rainbow. 

On the morning of the nineteenth day of June the gale had ceased, 
and the boats were launched from the icy embankment. A light 
breeze, which soon increased to a moderate gale, relieved the men from 
the labor of the oar. All were in good spirits, as no discouraging 
obstacles were now opposed to our progress. Within the first day after 
we had betaken ourselves to the boats we proceeded almost as far on 

147 



148 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

our homeward course as we had done in the preceding month; and 
this we did with scarcely any exertion at all, whereas our month's 
journey over the ice was a labor worthy of Alcides himself. In the 
afternoon, after a run of about fifty miles, we were brought up by a 
collection of ice, which, being broken up in small pieces, was a com- 
plete obstruction (though a temporary one) to our passage. All hands 
then turned in and took a comfortable nap of eight or ten hours, leaving 
but one of our party to keep watch. On the next morning the ice had 
opened sufficiently to give us a clear track. When we had proceeded, 
with all sails set, a little more than fifteen miles, and were but a short 
distance from a small island called Hakluyt, a gale from the south 
sprung up, and soon became so violent that we deemed it prudent to 
steer for the land. After immense labor (having to work against a 
head wind) and no little danger, we reached the island, in struggling 
to gain which we had consumed several hours. One of our boats was 
nearly filled with water, and all of them had sustained damages which 
made repairs necessary. On this island we were compelled to remain 
two days, before the ice and wind permitted us to proceed on our 
voyage. 

The coast which had been in sight to the eastward during a great 
part of our trip, is one of the most desolate that imagination ever por- 
trayed. Mountains, from one thousand to two thousand feet in height, 
rise from the sea and extend almost without intervals along the whole 
coast. These mountains are covered with snow, where the sides are 
not too precipitous to retain it. The precipices show the dark naked 
rock, unrelieved by a single tree, bush, or any sign of vegetation. The 
few valleys which appear between these mountains are occupied by 
those rivers of ice called glaciers which emerge from the great ice 
basin, which covers all the interior and extends to th« sea, squeezing 
through every passage, and heaping up those immense mountains of 
floating ice with which theso waters abound. In no part of the world 
is the aspect of nature so repulsive. Nothing is visible but ice, water, 
and rock. In the midst of these ice streams, which often present, at 
the point of junction with the sea, a face of more than ten miles in 
breadth, sometimes are seen dark rocky peaks of great height and 
completely surrounded by ice. The semifluid rivers of ice being divided 
into two branches by these peaks, are reunited after they have passed by 
the obstruction, but a black line extends from the point of reunion to 
the sea. This black line consists of the stones and rubbish which the 
glacier carries away from the sides of the peak, and afterward inserts 
them in the icebergs formed on , the coast. By these again they are 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 151 

conveyed over seas to remote shores, where they are deposited on the 
bottom when the icebergs melt. Some of these stones or boulders are as 
large as medium-sized houses. It sometimes happens that they are de- 
posited by icebergs on planes or platforms of rock of a very different 
kind, situated at the bottom of the sea, thousands of miles from the 
place of their origin. Here they remain isolated, and when the land 
rises, as it now does in Sweden, Norway, and the west coast of 
South America, the boulders are brought to light and attract 'atten- 
tion by their singularity, as no similar rocks perhaps are to be found 
within a compass of several hundred miles. Such phenomena, not very 
long ago, caused much embarrassment among geologists, who were un- 
able to explain how these masses of stone were transported to such great 
distances from the sites of their original location. 

It is a curious speculation, but not a very improbable one, to suppose 
that those large masses of stone, evidently of foreign origin, which are 
now found on the plains of northern Germany, and in other parts of 
Europe ; and which, more than a thousand years ago, supplied altars 
for Druidical sacrifice, were transported by erratic icebergs at some very 
remote time, from the mountains of the Polar regions. These tran- 
sportations are certainly among the most wonderful operations of 
nature. 

After we left Hakluyt Island, (our first resting place subsequent to 
our embarkation,) our progress was less rapid than it was on the first 
day of our voyage in the boats. Immense quantities of drifting ice 
often interrupted our passage ; and, on several occasions, we were com- 
pelled to lay by for several days at a time. At the commencement of 
our trip we shot a great number of birds called little auks, which in 
our straitened circumstances were considered as tolerably palatable 
food. These birds migrate, every spring, from the latitude of Labra- 
dor to the regions of the high north, where they perform their incuba- 
tion, returning with their brood in September. Their nests are placed 
on the slopes of the hills and artfully concealed under stones, so that 
it is almost impossible to find them. These fowls are very numerous ; 
the flocks of them being even larger than those of the wild pigeons, which 
visit some parts of the United States. The mountains and seas are 
often covered for many miles with the auks ; millions of them at a time 
must have been in sight from our boats. They were so densely crowded 
together that the most unskillful or unlucky gunner could not fail to 
make a good shot. This was rare sport for those who liked it. Scarcely 
troubling ourselves. to take aim, we blazed away, and very often twenty 
or thirty auks were killed by each discharge of the gun. The quantity 



152 



SONNTAQ S NARRATIVE OF THE GRINNELL EXPEDITION. 



of these birds consumed by our party was enormous. Each of us ate 
from three to six at a meal, and all of the men who could be spared 
from the service of the boats were almost constantly employed in pre- 
paring them for the kettle. Lest this account should cause us to be 
suspected of ogre-like voracity, let me remark that the auk is not 
larger than a snipe, and that we had nothing to eat with them — ^no 
vegetables, and very often no bread. Besides, the Arctic breezes, as I 
have mentioned in another place, have a surprising eiFect in sharpeiiing 
the appetite. 




£UJX££^ 



ARCTIC DOG SLEDGE — FULL GALLOP. 



But this abundant supply of birds was of short continuance. As 
we increased our distance from the shore the auks became scarcer, and 
very soon we saw no more of them. Had it not been for this fortu- 
nate supply of birds, it is probable that our stock of provisions would 
have been exhausted before we could have reached any place where 
fresh supplies might be obtained. As it was, we were compelled to 
content ourselves with very short rations, consisting of two ounces of 
bread and a spoonful of lard for each meal. Such small allowance of 
provisions did not agree very well with the large amount of work which 
our men were required to perform. The consequence was that many 
of them became sick, and all of them were too weak to execute their 
tasks in a very efficient manner. 

About the middle of July we reached another little island called 
Dallrymple Rock, where we procured a good supply of fresh provisions. 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 155 

This island is a great place of resort for eider ducks, and here we found 
their eggs in great abundance. During the two or three days of our abode 
on this island, where we were detained by the closely packed ice and the 
want of favorable winds — several thousands of these duck eggs were 
collected from this small rocky island, which is little more than a mile 
in circumference. These eggs are nearly twice as large as hen's eggs, 
the shells are of a greenish color, and the taste of the enclosed ali- 
ment is very much like that of the common duck eggs, rather stronger 
perhaps; but as our stomachs were strong likewise, they were not 
daunted by the flavor of the eggs. The nests of these ducks are of a 
circular form, and are composed entirely of eider-down, which the bird 
plucks from her own breast for the purpose of forming her " procreant 
cradle." The stock of eggs which we laid in at this place furnished 
us with provisions for several days, but aflbrded very little variety in 
the way of eating. We breakfasted, dined, and supped on eggs, and on 
eggs only, except a small allowance of bread at each meal. However, 
we had a sufficiency of eggs, and that to people in our situation was a 
blessing for which we felt bound to be grateful. 

But another difficulty now occurred to us. Our fuel had become 
very scarce, and we apprehended that we should soon be unable to get 
our eggs cooked. Before we left the United States we laid in a large 
stock of pork fat, intended for lamp fuel and other combustible pur- 
poses ; but this article had now become extremely scarce. It was re- 
solved, therefore, in solemn conclave, that the lard fuel should be 
reserved for the purpose of boiling our tea, and that the eggs should 
thenceforth be eaten raw ; which resolution was carried into eflfect, 
much to the discomfort of some of our party. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

WE ARRIVE AT A SPOT WELL POPULATED BY FEATHERED BIPEDS. — 
GREAT SLAUGHTER OF THE INHABITANTS. — WE EXPECT TO MEET 
WITH WHALERS, BUT ARE DISAPPOINTED. — VEXATIOUS DECEPTIONS 
, PRACTICED ON US BY THE ICEBERGS. — ARRIVAL AT MELVILLE 
BAY. — DIFFICULTIES OF NAVIGATION AT THAT POINT. — THREE WHITE 
MEN ARE DISCOVERED ON AN ISLAND. — ARRIVAL AT A DANISH SET- 
TLEMENT THE END OF THE FAMOUS BOAT JOURNEY. 

Just at the time when all our eggs were used up, our progress was 
effectually stopped by large floes of ice which adhered to the shore, 
and were too thin to admit of the transportation of our boats over 
them on sledge-runners as formerly. All that we could do, therefore, 
was to wait patiently until, by the action of the wind and waves, this 
obstruction should be broken up or removed. We landed on the coast, 
where we were detained for three weeks; but fortunately the place 
afforded us an ample supply of food. This locality was a "rookery" 
of loons, situated among some cliffs, which rise from one thousand to 
fifteen hundred feet perpendicularly from the sea. The loon is a ma- 
rine bird which migrates, like the little auk, to high northern latitudes, 
in the summer season, for the purpose of depositing its eggs- and hatch- 
ing them. The rocky precipices were covered with these animals. On 
every little projecting shelf of the rock the birds were seen in close 
ranks, sitting on their eggs. Very often fifty or more of them were 
ranged in one straight line with their breasts toward the sea. They 
do not build any nests, but hold their eggs on their feet, and so perform 
the operation of hatching them. They execute this maternal office 
with admirable patience. The water from the melting snow often runs 
from the rocks above directly under them ; but they seem to disregard 
this inconvenience. The noise made by the vast congregation of birds 
which frequent these rocks is almost stunning, exceeding the roar of 
Niagara ; millions of the feathered performers being engaged in the 
grand concert. Their melody, however, is not of the most fascinating 
kind. To say the truth we did not like their music, and therefore we 
felt no compunction or remorse when we fired among the vocalists, and 
silenced some of them most effectually. When a gun is discharged into 
the rookery, so many birds fly up that the sky seems to be filled with 
156 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 15T 

them, considerably thicker than " the leaves which strew the autumnal 
floods in Valambrosa," and the horizon, for a time, is scarcely visible. 
But the vast numbers which rise on their wings make no perceptible 
diminution of the less timid crowds which remain on the rocks. From 
two to five, and sometimes more, are killed at every shot ; and such is 
the thronged condition of the birds, that it makes little difference 
whether you take aim or not. As the startled flocks rise up at the 
report of the gun, immense quantities of eggs are thrown into the sea ; 
nor is this the only waste, for at least a half of the birds which are 
shot fall on the shelves of the rock where they were sitting, and 
remain there, far beyond the reach of the gunner. A sufficient number 
however fell down on the ice or water at the foot of the cliffs, and 
these were reserved for the uses of our culinary department. 

The average weight of a loon is about two pounds. The legs, wings, 
and bill of this bird, like those of the little auk, are black. The 
breast is white. Two of them are often seen fighting on the surface 
of the water, and they are so intent on their belligerent operations that 
nothing else can attract their notice until the duel is ended. While 
these fights were going on, a man in a boat often approached the scene 
of battle, and took possession of one or both of the combatants with 
perfect ease ; their warlike ardor not allowing them to perceive the 
advance of their common enemy. While we were waiting under these 
cliffs for the breaking up of the ice, we feasted luxuriously on loons 
and their eggs — and likewise put up for future use several bags full of 
the birds, which were cleaned and dried for the purpose. 

In the meanwhile, a watch was kept for whaling vessels, as we "were 
now in the track which is frequented by ships engaged in that service. 
Several times we were all excited by the report that a ship was in sight, 
but in all cases this proved to be a mistake. The object which our man 
on the lookout mistook for a ship, invariably proved to be an iceberg ; 
and the mistake was excusable, for the bergs are very deceptive when 
seen at a distance, assuming all imaginable forms, and old sailors are 
often deceived by their close resemblance to ships in full sail. The de- 
lusion is sometimes most wonderful ; the spectator sees, or imagines he 
sees the mast, sails and rigging all traced out with the greatest pre- 
cision, the dark lines which help to make out the picture being nothing 
more than the stones, earth, and rubbish which are incorporated with 
the ice. I have often been startled by the appearance of magnificent 
buildings rising from the sea ; and not until I had been repeatedly 
taught by experience that the appearance was fallacious, could I be 
persuaded that the splendid object before me was merely an iceberg. 



158 sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 

After many such excitements and disappointments, the ice opened 
sufficiently to let the boats pass. We then worked our way slowly 
along the coast, passing another community of little auks and observing 
a constant succession of dreary mountainous scenery such as I have 
described in the preceding chapter. The position of the ice was always 
changing with the changes of the tides, closing in toward the shore 
when the tide set in that direction and opening again when the tide set 
outward. We were obliged therefore to be always on the alert, laying 
by and sheltering ourselves in the cover when the ice pressed in toward 
the shore, and proceeding onward as expeditiously as possible when the 
track was reopened. Warping along in this way made severe labor 
for the men, who were kept actively employed so long as the passage 
remained unobstructed, which was sometimes from twelve to fifteen 
hours. The time allowed them for repose was seldom more than five or 
six hours 'per diem. 

By the nineteenth day of June we reached Cape York, at the en- 
trance of Melville Bay. This bay is an indentation on the coast of 
Greenland of sixty miles in depth. It lies south and east of Cape 
York and to the north of a point called the Devil's Thumb. From this 
point to Cape York the water is generally covered with immense fields 
of ice, called by navigators the "land-ice," or "fast-ice of Melville 
Bay," alpng the edges of which the whalers work their way to the north. 
Outside of this vast ice-cake are moving fields of ice composed of slabs 
or pieces of all sizes, which are broken up by the motion of the water 
and their collision with each other. This last-mentioned ice is called by 
Bailors " the middle pack," it is in constant motion, being driven about 
oy the winds and currents. This collection of ice is formed by the dis- 
charges from the several channels of Lancaster, Jones', Smith's, and 
Whale Sounds, which discharges are accumulated at this point by the 
currents flowing in various directions. On the west coast of Greenland 
or east side of Baffin's Bay, a current sets in and runs northward until 
it approaches Cape York, when it turns to the west. When it reaches 
Lancaster Sound it unites with a current proceeding from that channel, 
and both together run southward along the western side of Baffin's Bay 
or the east coast of North America. 

There is a* large expanse of slack-water between the current running 
northward on the east side of the Bay, and that which runs southward 
on the west side. In this slack-water the ice carried out by these cur- 
rents is accumulated, and forms those large tracts of movable ice called 
the Middle Pack. By southerly and westerly winds this pack is 
driven toward the fast-ice, and then the passage through Melville 



Ed 




sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 161 

Bay is shut up. But it is opened again by winds from the north and 
east, and then there is an unobstructed track for ships between the fast- 
ice and the "pack." Often when the wind changes, and from other 
causes, the pack ice is driven in suddenly and unexpectedly, and then 
the ships which happen to be in the passage are in a very dangerous 
situation, as we have explained in a former part of this narrative. 

For the most part of the time our little fleet of boats was favored 
with fair winds and a free passage through these accumulations of ice. 
Only on a few occasions were we obliged to resort to our sledge runners 
to transport the boats over ice cakes which shut up our passage. At 
one time we were full seventy miles from the nearest land. We again 
found it necessary to economize our provisions in this part of our voy- 
age, and all hands were put on the very short allowance of two ounces 
of bread for each individual, at a meal. In this exigency, the marks- 
manship of Mr. Petersen, the Danish interpreter, afforded us unex- 
pected relief. He had the good fortune to kill a large seal, which 
supplied us not only with meat, but also with fat or blubber for fuel. 

The whole company was much, revived and inspirited by this timely 
supply of provisions, whereby the men were enabled to do more work, 
and our progress was somewhat accelerated. 

On the third day of August the boats w^ere again in open water, 
moving onward quite briskly under the impulse of a fresh breeze from 
the north. Our squadron now consisted only of two boats ; the third 
one, the Little Dingy, was cut up for firewood soon after we entered 
Melville Bay. She was smaller than the other two boats, and much less 
swift. Finding therefore that she only retarded our movements, we 
condemned her to the flames ; and we were rather glad to have a fair 
excuse foi supplying ourselves with such capital fuel. The crew of the 
condemned boat was equally divided between the other two, so each of 
our remaining boats had eight men. 

The fourth of August was a memorable day. In the afternoon of 
that day we saw the first white men which, with the exception of our 
own party, we had seen for more than two years. The sight of these 
persons was almost as grateful to us as if they had been our own 
kindred. The manner of our meeting with them was as follows. 
While we were sailing among some small islands, human voices were 
heard, and soon, through the spy-glass, we discovered a tent on one of 
the islands; shortly after we observed the masts of a large boat ; and then 
three men were discovered on the side of a hill. So eager were we to 
exchange greetings with them, that all hands betook themselves to the 
oars, and the boats were made to shoot with arrow-like swiftness to the 
11 



162 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 



shore. The strangers proved to be three Danes, who had come thither 
in a very large boat to procure oil and blubber from the Esquimaux, 
whose summer habitations are scattered about on these islands. Our 
new acquaintances were from the northernmost Danish settlement, 
called Upernavik. They behaved in the most hospitable manner, 
offering us three luxuries which we had almost forgotten, viz., coffee, 
beer, and tobacco, all of which were thankfully accepted. According 
to the estimate of these Danes we were sixteen Danish miles, equal to 
seventy -five statute miles from Upervavik. 




SEALS. 



We made a halt for several hours with these persons, partaking of the 
refreshments which they freely offered us, after which we re-embarked 
and steered directly for the settlement, which we reached on the eighth 
of August, having been much incommoded on the last days of our voy- 
age by the densest fog that ever came under my observation. 

Our arrival made a tremendous sensation among the people of the 
settlement, who all assembled on the beach to receive us, and wonder 
at our outlandish and almost unearthly appearance. Mr. Petersen, our 
interpreter, was a resident of this place, and his wife and children were 
among those who thronged the beach to give us a welcome. The meet- 




OUR RUDDER-POST, AFTER A SEVERE "NIP." 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 165 

ing of Mr. Petersen and his relations, some of whom probably never 
expected to see him again, was joyful to themselves and aflfecting to 
the spectators. The joy of his wife was the more excessive, because 
she had been impressed with the belief that he would never return, the 
dangers of Arctic travel being much magnified by her aftectionate 
solicitude. Our boats were hauled up on shore, and our people slept 
in them that night for the last time. 



CHAPTER XYII, 

OUR COOL RECEPTION AT UPERNAVIK. — THE ESQUIMAUX TREAT US HAND- 
SOMELY. — THE CURIOUS RELIGIOUS NOTIONS OF THESE PEOPLE. — 
THEIR GOVERNMENT. — THEIR STRANGE DUELS. — IMPROVEMENTS IN 
THEIR MODES OP LIVING. 

The govei-nor of the settlement, Mr. Fleischer, vras absent, and, 
without his permission nothing could be given out of the public stores. 
We were compelled, therefore, to live for several days on the provisions 
which we had brought with us from the north, hoping that we should 
fare better when the governor had returned. We were quartered in a 
loft over a storehouse, and our mode of living was not much more stylish 
and comfortable than it had been for the preceding three months in the 
boats. The Esquimaux inhabitants and the priest, Mr. Kragh, showed 
us much kindness. Observing that the loft in which we lodged was too 
cool to be agreeable, they invited us to their tents, giving us permission 
to sleep on the floors, but they were unable to afford us any bedding ; 
we were constrained, therefore, to use that which we had brought with 
us from the ship. We remained here about three weeks, waiting for 
the Danish vessel which makes an annual visit to the settlement. On 
the arrival of this vessel a passage for the whole company was engaged. 
The vessel was a brig called the Mariana, of about two hundred tons 
burden. On her departure she was freighted with seal skins and oil ; 
and as the cabin was merely large enough to accommodate three per- 
sons, it was appropriated to Dr. Kane and two of his oflficers. The 
others were lodged a-midships, among the oil casks, but the captain 
endeavored to make the whole party as comfortable as possible. 

The Esquimaux inhabitants of the Upernavik settlement appeared 
to be sorry to part with us. In justice to them I must say that they 
had treated us much better than the other settlers did, though the latter 
pretend to more civilization. As I became more intimately acquainted 
with these singular people, I felt disposed to like them better. Of all 
savages, so called, they are, perhaps, the most amiable — especially those 
of them who have been least in correspondence or contact with civilized 
nations. While we remained at this settlement I applied myself to 
166 



sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 167 

the study of the Esquimaux character ; and being under the necessity, 
like ray comrades, of passing much of my time in the Esquimaux huts, 
I had very good opportunities for learning various particulars con- 
cerning their customs, religious impressions, &c., which, not being com- 
prised in my former accounts of these tribes, may be here introduced, 
with the hope that they will be as interesting to my readers as they 
Tvere to myself. 

AH the Esquimaux * tribes depend on the sea, or the productions 
thereof, for their subsistence : their places of residence, therefore, are 
always near the coasts or on small islands. Their dwellings are 
sparsely distributed over a large space ; thus the tribe which inhabits 
the shores at the head of BaflBn's Bay occupies a coast line extending 
more than three hundred and fifty miles, yet there are not more than 
twenty huts, arranged in clusters of from three to five, within that 
extent of ground, and the population is probably less than two hundred 
persons, including men, women, and children. Their life is subject to 
many vicissitudes, perpetually alternating between a feast and a famine. 
They are never moderate in prosperity, but always patient in adversity. 
No prospect of want can make them economical. When they have food, 
they use it freely, and indeed extravagantly; and when they have 
little or nothing to eat, they submit to their privations with admirable 
fortitude and resignation. 

They subsist for the most part on animal food ; viz., the flesh of 
the bear, walrus, seal, and fox, and occasionally certain aquatic birds ; 
but when pressed by hunger, they devour the few edible herbs and 
roots which their sterile country affords, and especially the lichen, or 
moss, which is found on some of the rocks ; and it sometimes happens 
that they are obliged to maintain themselves for months together on 
this " lenten entertainment." 

The religion of the Esquimaux is, of all curious systems of theology, 
the most curious. Nevertheless they are not polytheists, demon-wor- 
shipers, nor even idolaters, in the common acceptation of that terra. 
They believe in one supreme deity, whom they call Toongarsoon ; like- 
wise in a devil, who is of the feminine gender, but whose proper name 
(if she has one), I could never ascertain. Their god is supposed to 
reside in a handsome stone dwelling, situated somewhere in the sea. 
His occupation, according to their notion, is a very benevolent one : for 
he is said to keep large herds of seals, sea-horses, &c., for the express 
purpose of providing entertainments for the souls of good men, which 
are transported immediately after death to the apartment assigned to 
them in the marine palace where his godship resides. A large apart- 



Ibb SONNTAG S NARRATIVE Or THE GRINNELL "EXPEDITION. 

ment of this palace is said to be fitted up with cooking apparatus, all oh 
the most extensive scale ; pots and kettles of such huge dimensions, 
that walruses, sea-unicorns, seals, &c., in large numbers, are boiled or 
baked therein every day, to furnish a perpetual banquet for the happy 
spirits of deceased Esquimaux hunters, or such of them as have behaved 
themselves with tolerable propriety while in the flesh. Hence it will 
appear that the Esquimaux heaven consists of a never-ending feast of 
fat things, an eternity of well-cooked walrus-meat and seal's blubber. 

The devil (the female one, remember), is supposed to be an unworthy 
sister of the divine Toongarson. She resides at some distance from her 
brother's palace, on an island, where game of all kinds is very scarce, 
where she takes charge of deceased sinners, who, under her domestic 
management, fare worse, if possible, than the inmates of some of the 
cheap boarding-houses in New York. In fact, these delinquent spirits 
suffer the pangs of starvation, and their cries and shrieks of agony are 
often heard above the howling of the Arctic gales and the angry roar 
of the mountain torrents. 

The Esquimaux are almost the only people in the world who have 
no government. Every man among them is absolutely his own master. 
They have indeed a nominal patriarch or chief-ofiicer of the tribe, who 
is called Noolegook ; but his ofiice is a sinecure, and his prerogative is 
not to enforce obedience but to give advice. His advice is given freely 
and seldom gives offense, for the Esquimaux have not learned that it is 
an insult to offer a man good counsel ; however, they often adopt the 
rule which is operative on a majority of our species, that is, to accept 
no advice which does not accord with their own opinions. 

They acknowledge no law except public opinion, and this seems to 
have great weight with them. Crimes are seldom committed because 
they are disgraceful and inconvenient, the criminal being shunned and 
abhorred by his fellow-countrymen. Injuries are sometimes but not 
always punished by acts of private resentment ; but the principal way 
in which their vengeance is exhibited is by making their enemy ridicu- 
lous. For this purpose he is invited by the offended party to meet at a 
certain time and place where the matter in dispute becomes the subject 
of a satirical controversy, a number of persons being assembled to hear 
and decide according to the real merits of the case. The accuser then 
makes a speech full of biting sarcasm, in which the conduct of the 
accused is represented in the most unfavorable light ; and when this 
harangue is finished, the opposite party rises and makes another speech, 
intended to throw back all the odium and contempt on his opponent. In 
this way the discussion is continued until an overwhelming laugh is 



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sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 



171 



raised at the expense of one of the controversialists, -who makes a hasty 
retreat, pursued by the scoffs and jeers of the whole auditory, while his 
opponent, triumphantly claims the victory. All disputes and quarrels 
among these people are settled by this whimsical mode of duelling ; and 
the wordy contest being over, the opposing parties are generally 
reconciled and as good friends as ever. 

By the arrival of the annual ships at Upernavik, the Esquimaux 
residents were supplied with various articles of food which they covet 
exceedingly, particularly coffee, which they consume in great quantities 
when they have become accustomed to its use. It is fortunate for them 
that they have not the same passionate fondness for alcoholic liquor ; 
but, as I have said before, they have no relish for any thing of the kind. 
As soon as the lading of the ship was deposited in the storehouse, the 
Esquimaux customers thronged to the place with the commodities for 
which they receive European productions in exchange. Soon after a 
fire was kindled before every tent, and scores of Esquimaux women were 
employed in the preparation of coffee. They make it very strong, and 
drink it without milk or cream of course, as these articles are not within 
their reach ; but for the purpose of sweetening the beverage, they hold 
small pieces of sugar candy in their mouths as the Netherland ladies do 




ESQUIMAUX AND HIS KYAIK. 



when they drink tea. While their store of coffee lasts, they drink the 
liquid preparation ten or twelve times per day. 

The Esquimaux of this settlement do not live in stone houses like 



172 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

those on the northern coast ; their dwellings are made of sods or turf, 
and have wooden roofs and sleeping bunks of the same material; 
though the interior of the huts are arranged, in other respects, much 
like those of the northern tribes. At this settlement it is no uncommon 
thing for marriages to take place between Danish men and Esquimaux 
women ; the consequence is that a mixed breed is produced, which is 
superior in some particulars to the original stock on either side. ■ The 
women of the mixed races are much handsomer than those of pure 
Esquimaux blood, the latter being scarcely distinguishable from the 
men except -by their dress. The Esquimaux of this locality have begun 
to learn some of the arts and to appreciate some of the comforts of 
civilized life. Their houses are kept very neat and clean ; the sides or 
walls are sometimes papered or covered with pictures, chiefly of German 
or Danish production, representing southern landscapes, agricultural 
scenes, cities, soldiers and other objects, of which these people can have 
but a very faint conception, as they are so very unlike any thing that 
may be seen in their own desolate country. Some of the huts have, in 
addition to the common Esquimaux lamps, very convenient iron stoves, 
which are exported to this region by the Greenland Trading Company. 
These stoves, as a matter of policy, are sold to the natives at very low 
prices, because the use of them makes less consumption of oil, and the 
company obtain larger supplies of that commodity for exportation to 
Denmark, Sweden, and other European countries. 

A priest and a schoolmaster are stationed at this settlement, and the 
Esquimaux children are taught to read and write in their own language, 
for which a suitable alphabet has been contrived. Like the tribes of 
the north, the Esquimaux of Upernavik change their places of residence 
twice in each year, occupying their huts in winter and tents in summer. 
Their tents are made of prepared seal skins stretched on poles. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

DRESSES AND DECORATIONS OF ESQUIMAUX LADIES. — AN INGENIOUS 
SIGNAL, OR A BEAU-CATCHING CONTRIVANCE. — ADMIRABLE CON- 
STRUCTION OF THE ESQUIMAUX BOATS. — REINDEER HUNTING BY 
WATER. — "WE PROCEED IN A DANISH SHIP TO DISCO ISLAND. — OUR 
HOSPITABLE RECEPTION. — ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HARTSTEIN'S EXPE- 
DITION IN SEARCH OF DR. KANE.^WE EMBARK FOR THE UNITED 
STATES. — ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK. — CONCLUSION OF THE NARRATIVE. 

The women of this settlement aim at some elegance in their style of 
dressing. Their boots are made of tanned seal skin of various colors, 
white, red, yellow or violet, and profusely embroidered. They wear 
pantaloons of tanned seal skins, ornamented with colored strips of the 
same kind of leather. Their jackets or jumpers, are composed, some- 
times, of printed cotton cloth or calico, and sometimes of woolen cloth 
embroidered with silk tape or colored galoons. Their garments exhibit 
as much variegation of color, if not as much richness of material, as 
the dresses of the ladies who promenade Chestnut street and Broadway. 
All of them wear an unsightly knot of hair on the tops of their heads, 
which counteracts all their efforts to look pretty. Around this top- 
knot the married ladies wind a narrow blue ribbon ; the unmarried 
ones use a red ribbon for the same purpose ; and this ornament answers 
the purpose of a sign or signal to advise male spectators that the wearer 
is still in the matrimonial market ; and I dare say some of the young 
ladies of other countries would be glad to avail themselves of a similar 
mode of advertising. The 'head-dress is completed by tying a colored 
silk-handkerchief, neatly folded, around the brow, like the ancient tiara 
or diadem. These ladies are fond of bijouterie; few of them being 
seen without rings in their ears and on their fingers. 

Near the tents are low stands or racks made of wood, on which the 
sledges and kaiacks are placed when they are not required for use. 
The kaiack, or Esquimaux boat, deserves a particular description. It 
consists of a light wooden frame, covered with tanned seal skins : the 
length is about eighteen feet ; their greatest breadth on deck, is from 
eighteen to twenty-one inches, and their greatest depth about ten 
inches. The wooden strips of which the framework is composed, when 

173 



174 sonntag's narrative op the grinnell expedition. 

separate, are not thicker than a man's finger. The seal hides which 
cover this frame are sewed together with the tendons or sinews of the 
same animal. The deck is formed in a similar manner and of the same 
materials, but has a circular hole in the middle, through which the 
boatman squeezes his lower extremities, which are pretty well secured 
from wet and cold, while the other parts of his person are protected 
from the weather merely by his ordinary wearing apparel. The hole 
in which the boatman sits has around it a seal skin rim or belt about 
two inches wide, which the man ties around his waist, and so makes his 
little bark perfectly water-tight, above deck and below it, whereby he 
is enabled to float her in the roughest seas, as it is impossible for his 
boat to sink. On the deck immediately behind the boatman is an air- 
tight bag or bladder, made of seal skins, which is kept inflated, and is 
intended to be attached to the line of the harpoon, for the purpose of 
retarding the progress of the animals which the boatman may succeed 
in harpooning. Before the Esquimaux boatman a stand or reel made 
of bone is fixed to the deck, and on this the harpoon-line is coiled. 
The harpoons and lances are also carried on deck. The kaiacker, or 
boatman, is dressed in water-tight seal skin clothing. He propels his 
kaiack through the water by means of a paddle about one foot long, 
having a blade on each end. In these boats the Esquimaux can move 
at the rate of five miles or more per hour ; and, on long journeys, they 
average from thirty to forty miles per day. When land or ice inter- 
rupts his progress, the boatman takes his kaiack out of the water, ana 
carries it, with all its freight, on his shoulder or back. Besides their 
kaiacks, the Esquimaux have boats of a larger size called oomiaks. 
These are their family boats, and are used for the conveyance of the 
women and children. The oomiaks are made in all respects like the 
kaiaks, diflFering from the latter in size only ; and are rowed or paddled 
by the women themselves, as the men seldom or never accompany them 
on their excursions. 

The Esquimaux of Upernavik use their boats when they hunt the 
reindeer, as these animals sometimes betake themselves to the water 
when they are pursued, and continue therein until they are so much 
fatigued with swimming that they -are easily overtaken. They are so 
numerous on the mainland that four or five thousand of them are killed 
in one season by the inhabitants of a single settlement. 

After leaving Upernavik we had a quick passage, in the Danish ship, 
to Godhaven or Lively, on Disco Island, where the Royal Inspector of 
North Greenland resides. This place has quite a respectable appear- 
ance ; it contains, besides many huts and small buildings, some eight 



sonntag's narrative of the grinnell expedition. 175 

or ten handsome wooden houses of considerable size, built in the modern 
style ; the sight of which made us feel almost at home. Among the 
residents of Godhaven, besides the Inspector, are the Governor, Mr. 
Sanderson, and his Assistant, Mr. Olrick, and several other gentlemen 
of education and refinement, who treated us with the greatest hospi- 
tality — doing all in their power to compensate us for the hardships and 
deprivation of comforts, to which we had so long been subjected. 
Certainly the kindness of their behavior to us will always be held in 
grateful remembrance by every member of our party. 

A Danish ship visits this place once every year ; and we were for- 
tunate enough to find it there when we arrived. This ship is sent from 
Copenhagen for the purpose of supplying the settlers with clothing, 
provisions, newspapers and letters from their friends in Denmark. As 
the good people on the island receive their newspapers but once in a 
year, it may be supposed that they are not well posted up in the afiairs 
of the world at large. 

A short time before the Danish vessel intended to start on her home- 
ward trip, two other ships were reported to be seen standing for the 
harbor. They were soon made out to be a propeller and a bark ; and 
we doubted not that these were the vessels belonging to the American 
expedition under Captain Hartstein, which had been sent out to search 
for Dr. Kane and his party. We had heard some account of this 
expedition while we remained at Upernavik. As soon as the vessels 
came near enough to satisfy us respecting their identity, several boats 
were manned for the conveyance of our company on board. When we 
reached the bark, which was towed by the steamer, we met with a 
hearty and joyful reception from Captain Hartstein and the officers 
under his command. They had past our boats in Melville Bay while 
we were returning and Captain Hartstein was proceeding northward, 
but it so happened that we did not come within sight of each other. 
They approached within forty miles of our deserted ship, when their 
progress was stopped by the fast ice. They then returned on the west 
side ; and as no traces of our expedition were found, they intended to 
return to the north, and renew their search during the winter and the 
succeeding spring and summer. Their voyage had been quite a rough 
one, as the condition of their ships sufficiently testified. These vessels 
remained for several days in the harbor of Godhaven, where the officers 
were most generously entertained by the gentlemen of the place. All 
the members of Dr. Kane's expedition being received on board, we 
started for New York, and arrived at that city, after a very quick 
passage, on the eleventh day of October, 1855. 



176 sonntag's narrative op the grtnnell expedition.' 

To many of the friends whom we had left in the United States when 
we engaged in this arduous enterprise, our safe return was equally gra- 
tifying and unexpected. Our protracted absence had confirmed many 
persons in the belief that we had perished in the realms of perpetual 
ice. Some did not even admit that we had sacrificed ourselves in 
a good cause, but judged that we had paid with our lives the just 
penalty of our presumption in attempting to search that dark corner 
of creation, where Nature shrouds herself in an impenetrable tabernacle 
of ice. To our own perceptions this happy restoration to our homes and 
friends was a fortunate event ; for on more than one occasion during 
our absence we had almost ceased to hope for such a consummation. 
We had passed through scenes of severer sufiering, perhaps, than any 
human beings ever endured before ; we had lived through a succession 
of hardships which thousands and tens of thousands of our fellow-men 
could not have survived ; we had been literally buried in the ice, and 
could deliver ourselves from that frightful inhumation only by attempt- 
ing a journey which nothing but desperation could have prompted us 
to undertake. Need I say that our hearts glowed with emotions of 
gratitude to God when we found ourselves restored to the blessings of 
a temperate climate, social intercourse, and domestic comfort ; blessings 
which, by long privation, we had learned to appreciate according tc 
their worth. 



THE END. 



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